Gems (Book)

== Disambiguation ==
Gems is the story about Kaycey Smith and his successes .
== Plot ==
Gems is split into four books, not of equal length, called Pearl, Turmelion, Sapphire, and Quartz. These aren't the names, there is only a part nomenclature, but the artwork features these designs. Each book is mostly different but have various accounts that can be matched up as the same events only with varying details. 
The books are accounts recorded from POV interviews with Sara Selfie, Kaycee Smith, Alysa Peters, and Yana Semenov--or Visenya Goebelov, Kaycee Smith, Dina Domme, and Yana Popov. All accounts are basically true. The four accounts may just be released as a singe volume. There may be a fifth volume which brings it together and includes a clear description of the Gems bust. 
== Plot Overview ==
Kaycey starts a jewelry business and eventually works with Visenya to establish a good hold in the market. Kaycey's initial antagonist is an athlete paired with a social media influencer. After becoming established here in this business, Kaycey will eventually work with Yana Popov, Amor Valesquez, and Alysa Peters, and then the team will split one by one to become antagonists themselves. The story ends with a raid on Kaycey's money staches, and moves into the plot of the next book, Silence.
The book Heart of Hearts includes a plot with Stacey Monners and associates uncovering discrepancies in an audit; this detail eventually leads to the discovery of Kaycey's illegal product production, depending on how the plot for that book goes.
As a note about Amor Valesquez, she may originally be the influencer from the first part of the plot, or she may in fact take the place of a character named Felicia, who is the "manager" for Visenya's work.
The setting will probably also stretch to Germany to explore the diamond industry, as well as Russia.
=== Sapphire: Yana's Story ===
In Sapphire, we are introduced to the Popov's one of them being Yana Popov, and right away, we see her in the middle of a big Slavic family--right in the middle to her disliking--but it's a rich family. A really rich one. The Popov's got rich off the whaling industry and have invested the money since then to stay one of the wealthiest families in Ukraine. After being introduced to the family, we see her go to the movies with one of her brothers she is close to, named Pietov and a few friends. They have a conversation outlining how Yana tells her brother and friend that she wants to be famous like the people up there. They ask why she's already rich. and she says she wants people to know her name. Some people know the Popov's but nobody knows Yana Dimitriyivna Popov. They laugh and she laughs too with them. 
Later that night she has a camshow on a site. We see the flipside of the chat from one of the watchers POV complimenting her and he asks about her history, and she says her mom is a strip club dancer. 
==== Plot Point About Her Dimitri Popov's Business ====
As noted, the Popov's own a fishing business; this includes deep sea fishing. Part of the plot includes Dimitri, Yana's father, going off to deep sea fish along with some of his sons and family. Pietov would probably be included. This plot point is very vague now, but would possibly lead to Dimitri and his crew getting stranded at sea or some trouble resulting from that; this would be especially a concern for Yana since she is close to Pietov. However, the implications on the overall story are still unknown.
Possibly, Pietov could die or Dimitri as well. Although a later plot point would have to be altered: this is where Dimitri gets involved in the Gems' conflicts when Yana is killed. Alternately, Dimitri and crew will make it safely back home but there will be other farther-reaching implications. 
Author notes: There is an anomaly in real life called "The Baltic Sea Anamoly," which is a circular structure located at the bottom of the Baltic Sea--possibly a sea that Dimitri fishes (although he is focused on the Black Sea for his business). This could be included in the story relating to the Silent, the monster from "The Political Russian Story," etc. One idea I have is to make Dimitri originally going on a fishing trip, but a friend of his leads him off track to look into the Baltic Sea anomaly and weird things happen. 
=== Sterling: Kaycey's Story ===
The big idea around Kaycey's story is the payoff at the end that results in Kaycey, the Sandersons, Ray Rodriguez (Rodrigo), Stanley Long, other FBI agents, and even Stacey and Syl (possibly Claudia and/or Mayson) arriving at the same beach in Georgia unknown to any of them; each is doing business, except Syl and Stacey who are fulfilling a bucket list. Until this moment, the reader isn't sure if Stacey, Syl etc. fulfilled their list but then learns that they did. Kaycey's story ends halfway through the events that comprise all of the Gems story, but gives more detail than the other accounts. So basically, his account ends with the meeting at the Georgia beach, while other account end further on--for example, Stanley's account, the fifth and final account, will give the final details of the "Gem's Bust" to connect them all. 
=== Tourmaline: Alyssa's Story ===
Alyssa is a 24 year old business MBA graduate from Washington who has ambitions to start a clothing business; she's principled and ambitious--and the first to graduate in her family. Her uncle is a successful shoe brand creator and she despises him because he lends money to her dad, yet she is a lot like her uncle. Her account follows her journey going through jobs not particularly attuned to her skillset, but her principled attitude leads her to do pretty much whatever it takes to build her enterprise. Her arc involves having relationships, despising people due to her relation to them, developing a psychopathic attitude towards her rivals (specifically Kaycey), and then finally coming back around to having a healthy relationship with a boyfriend. She is included in the Gem's Bust.
=== Quartz: Visenya Goubelov ===
Visenya grew up in a poor district in Moscow. Her character is reliable and detail oriented, hence the moniker Quartz. She is possibly the first of her family to graduate from college and she has a degree in art from the University of Moscow.
=== Other Main Characters ===
Author notes: I have ideas for other characters that I haven't fit into the plot. These are necessary antagonists for Kaycey before he is very successful.
One is named Camile, who sells jewelry. She has a chameleon personality and uses that too get places.
=== Aftermath of Books ===
Following Gems, the next book planned in the series is Silence, which is the midpoint of the series and presents a twist regarding the revelation of the Silent. This twist changes the genre from the action, business oriented, Shakespearean drama of Gems to a Spy thriller genre with tones of psychological horror. Kaycey, Alysa and Visenya--at least--will still be alive and have varying roles. Eli will allow Alysa to look back in time to speak to Ailios, and she will present some information that she has been saving for this point.
Svetlana will probably also have a role at this point, although she will not be seen back in time. 
== Themes ==
=== The "Fruits of Pandora" Theme Template ===
Author notes: Often I imagine Gems as a television series and go through the opening theme song montage. During the first part of this, I imagine Yana eating a strawberry, seductively, while two mirror images of herself separate and the juice of the strawberry connects the two as it strings from her mouth, then the juices fall down the wall of the Popov mansion, running by a framed painting--obviously the juices are meant to represent blood.
This is a motif I imagine where each of the main characters in the series are eating from a fruit that gives them what they're looking for; for Yana it is lust, or like a fruit that will give her what she wants which is fame and attention; Kaycey eats from a blue fruit, maybe a plum, to give him divine knowledge of how to run the industry; Visenya eats from an orange or mango, which represents the fruit of knowledge (a la' the tree of knowledge); Amor eats a pale fruit, representing her need to be human but her manipulative use of others; and Alyssa eats a green apple, representing her desire for money and self-sufficiency.
Two clear connections here are the tree of knowledge idea, which is seen in many myths, and the "deadly sins," idea. This motif started when I imagined Yana eating the fruit, because she represents seduction for me, almost like a succubus.
Each person's ring could also tie into this, and if that were the case I may want to make, for example, Yana have a ruby ring.
=== The Three Tiers of Players Theme ===
Cont'd Author Notes: The next part I imagine in the opening montage is the FBI coverup, with things representing Stanley, James, etc. such as a coffee mug and gun on a table, and a news paper talking about Rose's coverup, the Sanderson Dynasty, and the events in Gems like the Aura Radiation Disaster. These items would be on the second floor of the Popov mansion. 
This theme, or rather a concept for the plot, says that there are three groups of people in the Gems series with different knowledge: one is the business players who don't know anything is strange in the world until Alysa learns about her heritage; the second group are Stanley, James, Willy Sr., reporters like Rachel from Thames' story, and other people who are aware something is going on.; the last group concerns the Shakespearean idea around Gems. I will explain that more in the next section. Basically, there are some of the 16--specifically Eli, Thames, Thomas, Amos, Amy, and last of all to discover Stacey, who are aware that there is something more than what the government agencies even know: that there are supernatural powers at play directing the people in their world, even though none save Amos and maybe Thomas' really understand what's happening. That leads to the next concept.
=== The Stage of the Gods Theme ===
This theme/plot idea is reminiscent of a story in Greek Mythology. Essentially, all of the events in Gems are being directed by the main characters (the 16) or others. How this happens is a bit nebulous currently (I'm still working out the mechanics), but each person in this world is actually a god that exists at the same time in the other world, the world separated by space that the Dreamers live in. This is the world each person on earth came from.
So again, either they exist at the same time, or the cycle has made it so at some point everyone on earth was aware they were in the cycle, and when they got to the god part of the cycle, they enacted things that would make it so their version of the story would play it. To give an example, let's take Stacey. At one time Stacey was a god, showing attributed similar to Artemis. When some of the gods decided to come to earth to gain the knowledge of "humanhood," Stacey was one of them, and at some point she ascends like everyone else, returning to her god state.
When this happens, the gods live through eons until they become sentient energies, the Silent. At this time, new humans are created that will eventually defeat and replace the Silent. The Silent, as stated on the related page, are actually one half of each god/human. For Stacey, her corresponding Silent is Death, because she represents life; however in reality, the Silent of death is her, it's just the yin to her yang. The cycle ends for each person when they unite with rather than defeat their opposite Silent.
Now back to the cycle, Stacey does not learn how to use Death, but rather defeats it, thus repeating the cycle. During each iteration of the cycle, the characters at play--Thomas, Stacey, Eli, etc.--work with or against each other until an iteration of the cycle occurs in which one of them realizes what's happening--that their in a cycle. This realization happens during this iteration, and, in the case of Stacey, she learns that there are supernatura forces directing what is basically a play, the play that is the entire plot of Gems. Hence, Gems has a very performance-like vibe, which plays into the pornstar, entertainment themes. But in actuality it is a play, or rather a war of moving chess pieces. 
The twist happens when two characters in specific--first Amos, then Thomas--realize what is happening, and so they themselves start directing the Gems' events on a human level, obviously using their abilities. For example, at the end of the Gems Bust, Stacey is the only one who notices Thomas standing on a bank high above what was just a failed attempt to confiscate Kaycey and Yana. She literally smells deer urine when no one else does, because she hunts and knows what it smells like, and turns around to see Thomas back from a hunt or going out to one, standing, and realizes that he caused them to fail. What she doesn't realize until later is that she as well as others in their god form are directing the events playing out in this world. Thomas does know about this. Amos and Svetlana are probably the first to discover this, although Svetlana will handle it differently than Amos.
To recap, Gems is a play, attempted to be controlled by many players in their god form, although the humans still have free will. I imagine the Gems bust playing out in a one shot directly to music just like a theatre production, which is just another motif that relates back to this theme.
=== General Theme ===
Each of the books in the "Down to Earth Duology (or trilogy)" have a lovecraftian theme that centers itself in the otherworldly/magical workings behind the scenes. Because Gems has a second person point-of-view as a recorded interview, there are a lot of hidden details; many of these details involve the fact that magical creatures, secret projects, etc. are happening of screen so to speak--you have to read in between the lines. All of these magical creatures, etc. lead back to the Silent, which hold a lovecraftian tone. The original idea for Gems was to introduce things like missing people, bigfoot, and human slavery; a story following the porn industry was meant to be a lead-in into these practices, and a connection to "The Book About the Under the Table Dynasty," which is all about these events. 
If this is to be the case, more narrative will have to be added for bigfoot and other creatures. After the aura radiation disaster, it may be that leaked auras mutate animals to strange creatures, but that's afterward. Perhaps that concept could be used as an explanation for something earlier.
=== The Meaning of the Title ===
Gems is the name of Kaycey's business and is callback to what he sells. In the original concept, Kaycey and Sara are both Gemini, and were both going to have psychopathic tendencies. 
This was just an idea, however the Face Of God now has a narrative about duality, two halves of souls, etc. so this would fit in. Regardless, this concept will probably be removed.
== Character Outlines ==
Gems is a story with main characters that are not really good, in fact even immoral, but whose backgrounds are explored in such a way as to give the reader a logical and emotional reason (hopefully) to understand and empathize/sympathize with the characters and the choices they make. As a whole, the main characters can be put into the following categories.
=== Alysa Peters: Anti villian ===
Alysa is a structured person with values that lend to her altruism in ways that don't always suit just her. This part of her personality is fitting because she acquired a whip that has been imbued with the arm aura by being close to Ailios' sword. This whip becomes her character motif and she uses it in her business dealings when she takes on a "Heisenberg" like persona later in the story as Dina Domme (her pornstar tagname). When she graduates the University of Washington with an MBA, she mostly sticks to this altruistic value set; as she gets older she changes her values to better suit herself, her goal of being independent, and her reaction to people in general. 
Eventually she does things that are immoral or in ethical for the sake of her business and ultimate goal of helping others or getting on top; her actions are logical but also a direct response to the conflicts she has in the story with Kaycee, Yana, and others, in her climb to the top. By definition, she is an antivillian: achieving a moral or healthy goal by less than moral ways. Later in her arc, she comes back around and becomes an honorable person.
Her antagonist, Kaycee Smith, has a similar arc.
=== Kaycee Smith: Tragic Hero (or Protagonist) ===
There isn't much detail to Kaycee's story, but it's established that Dina Domme/Alysa Peters will be his main business rival. In Gems, the conflicts are centered around business, but personal life also gets involved. Alysa is his main competitor after her achieves some success, and later conflicts get nasty...
Either Kaycee will be a tragic hero by sacrificing something for his values and the good of others after he makes some immoral choices, or he will mostly make moral choices. Again, the characters in Gems are mostly less than par individuals, but redeemable.
=== Yana Popov: Hero? Or Tragic Hero ===
Author Notes: Well, the rest of these character outlines I'm going to write however I want, none of the respectful fandom vernacular. So tbh I have no idea how Yana's story will end in regard to the entire plot, HOWEVER, as of now, she will be shot and killed by Visenya during the Gem's bust. Due to this, her arc may end before this point. If it did, she could be a hero, in which case I would show how she 1) perhaps redeemed Kaycee by being a good partner and person, similar to how I want to do with Alysa, when she gets in a good relationship with some guy and he helps her sort stuff out, or 2) has some greater effect on the political corruption/Silent are ruling the world/Russia and World powers standoff plot. Since her family--the Popov's have at least a little influence, she could have some effect in the greater outcome of the FoG story.
But, if her arc ends with her dying, maybe she is a tragic hero. In the beginning of the story she is shown to just be a young woman squished in an old money Ukraine mixed family with no real intentions besides making a name for herself--sooo my reasoning her is to make her desires be good throughout. To keep those goals and even achieve them. Maybe though at some point she reaches to something beyond herself when she learns what's going on in the world. This is a big stretch for Yana's personality and values since she is mostly just fun loving and outgoing, but that's why it's a story. 
One other idea for her arc is for her to develop an antisocial sort of harley quinn like aesthetic and drive, where she basically has fun making p**n r*drooms because she sees the entertainment value in them. Currently, this doesn't make sense and another real motivation would have to exist for this, the reason being, as I said, Yana loves her friends and is an extrovert; I don't see her even getting pleasure from some obscure art like this in less it involved other people in some way--making art like this seems like an introverted thing. Also, for her to be antisocial like this, she would need some other reason besides she feels out of place in her family. If her story took this route she would be an anti-hero. There's also the possibility that she could take this route and then come around and sacrifice herself or a part of herself. The reason I originally had the Harley Quinn idea is because Yana is structured around the ESFP Meyers-Briggs type, and basically likes to make other people happy and life is a stage type of thing--hence why she likes being a camgirl (and she's rebellious). However, however, I like the idea of Yana being a hero in this strange story, because she is one of the more "easy-to-miss" main characters, which fits her middle child persona, and I even go so far as to call her a "hidden" extrovert because she doesn't show that side to her family (save some of her siblings that she likes, such a Pietov). By the fact of her being a smaller (she's literally shorter, as in 5'3" short, and very petite--and on another note, I imagine Mackenzie Foy were she ever to be casted in a movie) character, and sometimes overlooked, I like the idea that her role is more important than one may suspect. Also, because she is a "sensing" (S), "Extraverted" (E), and "Perceiving" (P) character, she could be seen as vapid and in the moment, maybe not as grave and "principled" as some other characters. So in a story like the FoG that has overdeep tones and purpose driven story, it is a good balance to make a character like Yana shown to be as important as the "heroes" like Stanley Long or Stacey Monners (who, by the way, are Mary Sues right now but, dear Christ, I need to fix that).
=== Visenya Goubelov: Uhhh? ===
Even her name, my God--okay there's a lot of building that needs to be done with Visenya. She's an art major from Moscow. She's a straight line introvert and, my god, her character is boring right now because she's so simple. Even though I initially envisioned her as being sexy and fun loving, I made her a quintessential Virgo to fit a role--but yeah she needs to be fleshed out. She's basically Kaycee's "partner" throughout the story, which essentially means she has to be a lover and a partner and a competitor as the roles switch because Kaycee and Visenya are both psychopaths...sort of. Their background shows why they made the choices they do--but anyway...
So one of my newer, but not as new, ideas is to make Visenya literally a psychopath, as in she cannot feel and is immoral. I got this idea when I was listening to Gavin Degraw's song, "Radiation," the song which also inspired both the Aura Radiation disaster (Chernobyl re-enactment) and the Gems Bust. The lyrics say, "You're just as hot as radiation," referring to a lover in the song, but my idea was that this is Visenya: basically a problem to Kaycee from day one. Basically: a psychopath. Hence she straight up kills Yana when she and Kaycee are having sex in their tower of power or whatever the hell. She does this to "solidify her partnership with Kaycee," whatever that means, and plans to be Kaycee's business partner till the end, rather than aid the FBI, CIA, and governments of the world to put a halt to Kaycee's immoral porn/jewelry business practices.
The main problem right now is that I have no story that makes sense to get Vis to this point. Her family life (possibly?) includes a sex worker mom or a completely absent mother, however I had the idea to make Yana's biological mother be a strip dancer, so I probably won't include that. I also had the idea to make her from a poor family, unlike Yana. Regardless, Sara Selfie started out as an extroverted partner whose main qualification is that she is a Gemini (like Kaycee), but I'm not sure now. She seems like a villian, but if she has good motivations, she could be an antivillian. I can say, I think it'd be interesting to see how she and Alysa compete with each other, both having strong wills but different values. 
I'm going to talk more about how characters' in Gems compete (and are even able to hold their own against the American government and the friggin 16) in the next section. I'll just keep talking in "author notes" tone through that. But first, the last main character.
=== Stanley Long: Hero/Tragic Hero ===
So Stanley. The dude that is holding up Heart while Stacey Monners holds up the other side. Recently I've fleshed him out to basically make his arc include him researching the FBI's tactics to discovery why and how they killed his girlfriend (who was also an agent), and so purposely taking on the Stacey Monners case to understand how the FBI works, since they are doing a similar thing when they kill Rose (spoilers!). Obviously, his team and agency thought he was pushed into this role, essentially deeming him the babysitter to James and Stacey, but no, Stanley got here intentionally.
When we get to Gems, he's working with James and other members of his force, as well as Bo Sanderson and the his team, several of the 16, the CIA, and other important persons. He doesn't die or anything in the Gems bust, but his arc in general could be tragic, I suppose, since he lost his girlfriend, and spends his life to find out why this happened. I'm not sure how his arc with change during Gems, I just have him in the story because he's basically the what Coulson is to Marvel comics: the relatable guy from the real world agency that helps the super people.
== How the Characters in Gems have Influence: The Gems ==
Behold, the Infinity Stone copy: the Gems of Gems. Basically, there's a group of scientists in Gems who imbue the Kaycee's jewelry with the auras of the 16; somehow Kaycee gets access to these scientists and this technology. He may sell these rings to the public, thus giving him an incredible amount of money, but the worldbuilding ramifications of that would have to be explored.
This idea of using gems with powers is obviously not new--I mention the Infinity Stones, but there's also the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic, and probably others. I may or may not end up using the idea. But if I do, each of the main characters--that's Yana, Visenya, Kaycee, and Alysa for now--will have a ring with an empowered gem. The gems will probably be the ones connected to each character's part in the story, for example the part called "Sapphire" will be the gem Yana has in her ring. As for what aura they have--well this will be a fun idea to explore. Again, each of the gems used for the characters relates to their personality. The point of the gems thing is that this gives each character a chance to go toe to toe with the 16; the 16 (or half of them) will work with the "good guys" to stop Kaycee, while the remaining 16 won't get involved, or will pretend like they're not involved. Thomas Manns pretends he's not involved...until he's shown to be orchestrating the entire Gems bust causing it to fail. And the only reason anyone sees him is because he was just deer hunting and had deer urine on his person--a smell that Stacey recognizes, smells, and turns around to see Thomas behind her.
== Payoffs ==
At the end of Gems Part all of the main characters meet an a beach in Georgia. How this happens is due to the characters being tracked via Narrative to this place. Here is how it goes by character
Gems happens the summer of Stacey graduating college. So she takes a vacation that summer and doesn't do any work, in the interim her and Syl and other people have an adventure before Syl moves to some other place. What they do is yet unknown but that's why it's called a payoff damnit! Basically during this time, Stacey finds out more about Rose and uses the free time to go on an adventure and search for her killer....she contacts Bo in this part of the story. And what happens is that their summer bucket list includes going to the beach where the people meet up at the end. So, since the story goes in another direction, the reader doesn't know if they finished thier bucket until the last scene of Gems which shows Stacey at the beach with Syl etc. in the very last line/lines.
Kaycey is here with partners also because his final deal of the book was at a nearby building, where the climax of the story is, and he is celebrating here. Various members in the FBI are here, along with Stanley etc. because they made the deal with Kaycey 
Bo Saderson, Eagle, and maybe even Ray are here because their next course of action includes leaving on a ship across this ocean (pacific) and they're just getting some beach before then.
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