Reconcile complete Afterglow v9 with the unfinished v10 Blocks 1–8 rewrite

[BryanHarrisScripts]

Decision needed

Bryan confirmed that Afterglow v10 X Rewrite Bryan E. Harris 2023 was an unfinished rewrite and asked how it should be handled alongside the complete v9 screenplay.

The correct approach is not to choose one entire file and discard the other.

• v9 should remain the frozen last-complete screenplay baseline.
• v10 should be preserved as a partial alternate rewrite covering Blocks 1–8 only.
• A new current screenplay under the canonical title Afterglow: Reflections of Sentience should be created by reconciling v10 against v9 Block by Block.
• Blocks not rewritten in v10 should initially inherit v9 rather than being treated as missing or invented.

Recommended current-draft label:

Afterglow: Reflections of Sentience — v11 Working Rewrite

The display can also use Current PlotPickle Rewrite until Bryan decides whether to continue numeric versioning.

Source recovery finding

The current repository retains both PDFs:

• Afterglow v9 Twitter Rewrite Bryan E. Harris 2023.pdf
• Afterglow v10 X Rewrite Bryan E. Harris 2023.pdf

The original editable v10 Markdown source had been deleted, but it remains recoverable through Git history.

Recovered source:

• path: Afterglow v10 X Rewrite Bryan E. Harris 2023.md
• historical ref: 128891ddb3fb86e2a4f0b20e85c7decc31b46c9e
• blob SHA: 042427931c4a74a5dbe48e05750aea66f6b2486e

Its opening note explicitly says:

This is RAW and once complete will be moved to Final Draft.

The recovered file ends immediately after Block 8 — From Dusk to Drive: AI Road Trip Rumble. It contains no v10 Blocks 9 onward.

The v9 Final Draft source is also recoverable through Git history:

• path: Afterglow v9 Twitter Rewrite Bryan E. Harris 2023.fdx
• historical ref: 2185893050a220307f9c2c5a97753ff0e2587878
• blob SHA: 54b5967644c5a41363fa88f57b02473ea758acc2

PlotPickle has already transcribed v9 into Fountain and identifies it as a complete 80-page, 24-Block demonstration screenplay.

Current PlotPickle mismatch

data/afterglow-screenplay.ts currently treats v9 as the complete canonical demonstration screenplay.

However, data/afterglow.ts uses a Block-title index that already reflects some v10-era restructuring, including:

1. Puppets and Puppeteers — Part 1
2. Puppets and Puppeteers — Part 2
3. A Dance with AI and New Beginning
4. Broken Numbers & Shattered Hearts
5. Dawn of Departure
6. Remnants of the Past
7. The Long Road to Silence
8. AI Road Trip Rumble

The v9 screenplay begins in this order:

1. Puppets and Puppeteers
2. Broken Numbers, Shattered Hearts
3. Summer’s Symphony: A Dance with AI and New Beginnings
4. Dawn of Departure and Reflection
5. Remnants / road material
6. The Long Road to Silence
7. From Dusk to Drive: AI Road Trip Rumble

The v10 partial rewrite begins in this order:

1. New BBT boardroom and origin prologue
2. Puppets and Puppeteers
3. Summer’s Symphony
4. Broken Numbers, Shattered Hearts
5. Dawn of Departure and Reflection
6. Remnants of the Past and Echoes of the Future
7. The Long Road to Silence
8. From Dusk to Drive: AI Road Trip Rumble

Therefore the current PlotPickle Block index, v9 screenplay headings and v10 source numbers cannot be treated as automatically equivalent.

What v10 was doing

v10 is more than a dialogue polish. It begins a structural and tonal rewrite.

New opening

v10 adds a new Block 1 in the BBT boardroom and laboratory. It introduces:

• Amy’s creation and human appearance;
• Jai and Kai’s concern that society is not ready;
• Claire and Sarah as later models;
• police, military, surveillance and defence interest;
• BBT’s ethical and institutional conflict before Ren’s personal loss.

The v9 script instead opens with Amy telling Ren that the board has made its decision, followed by Ren’s home and Amy’s narrated story setup.

Reordered emotional introductions

v9 places the Claire/Sarah car crash before Summer’s introduction.

v10 introduces Summer and her AI animal family first, then presents Ren’s loss in the following Block.

This changes audience alignment and the emotional rhythm of the opening.

Expanded and condensed material

v10:

• makes Summer’s Costa Rica relocation explicit;
• specifies Santa Cruz, Venice Beach and the Pacific Coast Highway route;
• tightens or rewrites several conversations;
• develops Rocket and Joy’s system irregularities;
• foregrounds an unidentified device, A.I.M.E. and possible sabotage;
• condenses some of v9’s longer internal narration;
• adds clearer Jai and Kai uncertainty around the accident and system intrusion.

Raw-draft problems

The v10 source should not be imported as finished screenplay pages without review. It contains:

• raw Markdown screenplay formatting;
• explanatory dialogue and voice-over;
• duplicated or repeated setup;
• inconsistent company names such as BBT, BTT and Big Ben Technologies;
• an unfinished structural pass;
• legacy title references to Echoes of Sentience;
• Summer rather than the unresolved Summer/Isobel identity;
• unresolved Amy/Claire and accident/exploit continuity.

Recommended version model

Version A — v9 Complete Baseline

Status:

complete-baseline

Purpose:

• immutable reference;
• last complete screenplay;
• source for Blocks not yet rewritten;
• comparison and recovery source;
• never silently overwritten.

Display label:

Afterglow v9 — Complete 2023 Baseline

Version B — v10 Partial Rewrite

Status:

partial-alternate

Scope:

• Blocks 1–8 only;
• exact source extent recorded;
• Blocks 9–24 explicitly marked not attempted in v10, not blank and not rejected.

Display label:

Afterglow v10 — Unfinished Blocks 1–8 Rewrite

Version C — Current Reflections Rewrite

Status:

working-current

Display label:

Afterglow: Reflections of Sentience — v11 Working Rewrite

Starting rule:

• initialize from complete v9;
• attach v10 as a proposal source for the corresponding opening movements;
• retain nothing from v10 automatically;
• approve choices at scene, exchange or element level;
• preserve source attribution for every retained passage;
• allow newly written material that belongs to neither version.

Do not concatenate the PDFs

Do not create the current screenplay by placing v10 pages first and then appending v9 where v10 ends.

That would create:

• duplicated scenes;
• conflicting Block numbers;
• repeated setup;
• abrupt character and terminology changes;
• inconsistent chronology;
• an unreviewed shift from v10 wording back to v9 wording.

The merge must be semantic and Block-aware, not page-based.

Recommended reconciliation workflow

Step 1 — Freeze and identify the sources

Record:

• filename;
• source SHA;
• original title;
• version;
• completeness;
• source format;
• date;
• rights/licence;
• known scope;
• selected screenplay source.

Step 2 — Build a version-to-current Block map

For every v9 and v10 story section, map:

• source heading;
• source version and Block number;
• current intended Block;
• scenes included;
• characters and locations;
• continuity facts;
• status: confirmed, candidate, split, combined, reordered, superseded or unresolved.

Do not rely only on matching Block numbers.

Step 3 — Reconcile Blocks 1–8

For each current Block, show:

• v9 source text;
• v10 source text;
• current working text;
• structural differences;
• continuity differences;
• retained lines or actions;
• reason for the decision;
• open questions;
• approval status.

Actions:

• Keep v9
• Use v10 as starting point
• Combine selected material
• Write a new version
• Defer decision

Step 4 — Carry v9 forward for the rest of the screenplay

Blocks 9–24 begin with the complete v9 content or its verified mapping.

They should be labelled:

v9 baseline — not yet rewritten in the current Reflections pass

This keeps a complete readable screenplay available throughout the rewrite.

Step 5 — Rewrite forward without losing completeness

The current screenplay remains complete because unresolved sections continue displaying v9 material until deliberately replaced.

Progress can be tracked as:

• baseline only;
• v10 reviewed;
• current rewrite in progress;
• current rewrite approved;
• continuity recheck required.

Step 6 — Complete a continuity pass

After Blocks 1–8 are reconciled, check consequences across the remainder of the screenplay before continuing the rewrite.

A new opening can alter:

• when the audience understands Amy;
• Jai and Kai’s apparent motives;
• whether the crash reads as accident, sabotage or exploit;
• audience sympathy for Ren;
• when Summer/Isobel enters;
• the function of Rocket and Joy;
• BBT access and control;
• later reveals and ending logic.

High-priority story decisions

The version comparison should surface these as explicit Bryan decisions.

Opening point of view

• Begin with Amy and BBT’s institutional conflict?
• Begin with Ren receiving the board decision?
• Combine them without repeating exposition?

Opening order

• Ren’s loss before Summer’s introduction, as in v9?
• Summer before the loss, as in v10?
• Intercut them?

Claire and Sarah incident

• ordinary crash;
• vehicle-system failure;
• malicious device;
• exploit caused or discovered by Jai and Kai;
• deliberate sabotage;
• another source entirely.

Amy’s role

• narrator;
• participant;
• matchmaker;
• hidden system influence;
• climactic evolving consciousness;
• relationship to Claire’s contradictory ending role.

Summer and Isobel

• earlier and current name for one person;
• assumed identity;
• reveal structure;
• separate version only.

BBT terminology

Choose one canonical company name and acronym. Preserve typos and variants only in historical source records.

Route and destination

Confirm the chronology and dramatic purpose of:

• San Francisco;
• Santa Cruz;
• Venice Beach;
• San Diego;
• Costa Rica.

PlotPickle product support

Afterglow Version Bridge

Add an Afterglow-specific version comparison panel, initially without changing the general project schema if avoidable.

Show:

• v9 Complete Baseline;
• v10 Partial Rewrite;
• Current Reflections Rewrite;
• scope and completeness;
• Block mapping;
• selected source;
• current working text;
• unresolved continuity effects.

Screenplay source labels

Every displayed section should identify whether it currently comes from:

• v9 baseline;
• v10 partial rewrite;
• new current writing;
• merged and approved material.

Revision snapshots

Each approved replacement should preserve:

• before text;
• proposed text;
• accepted text;
• source version;
• source range;
• decision note;
• affected Block, scene and mini-block;
• approval timestamp.

Readable complete-script mode

The full screenplay must remain continuously readable during the rewrite.

When a current section is not ready, display the v9 baseline with a visible baseline not yet rewritten marker rather than removing the scene.

Export rules

Exports must clearly distinguish:

• archival v9;
• archival partial v10;
• current working Reflections screenplay;
• approved current draft.

Never export a hybrid as a numbered complete draft without a completeness and review check.

Relationship to current issues

• Convert the legacy Images archive to WebP and integrate it into the Afterglow project #58: legacy Afterglow images and Block mapping
• Reconcile the legacy Afterglow folder and convert the 2023 draft poster to WebP #60: legacy Afterglow folder, source reconciliation and 2023 poster
• This issue: screenplay-version strategy and v9/v10/current text reconciliation

Update #60 should link here for the detailed screenplay handling.

Acceptance criteria

• v9 is preserved as an immutable complete baseline.
• v10 is preserved as an unfinished Blocks 1–8 alternate rewrite.
• The recovered v10 Markdown source and historical SHA are documented.
• Blocks 9 onward are labelled not attempted in v10, not missing.
• A current Afterglow: Reflections of Sentience working draft is initialized without destroying v9.
• Current Block numbering is mapped explicitly to both source versions.
• PlotPickle no longer assumes that the v9 headings and v10-derived current Block index are automatically aligned.
• Blocks 1–8 support side-by-side source and current comparison.
• Writers can keep v9, use v10, combine selected material, write new material or defer.
• Nothing from v10 becomes canonical automatically.
• The complete script remains readable throughout the rewrite.
• Blocks not yet rewritten continue from the v9 baseline.
• Every accepted change preserves source and decision provenance.
• The new canonical display title is Afterglow: Reflections of Sentience.
• Afterglow: Echoes of Sentience remains a legacy source title and search alias.
• The opening order, Claire/Sarah incident, Amy/Claire role, Summer/Isobel identity, BBT naming and route chronology remain visible decisions until resolved.
• Tests cover version completeness, Block mapping, baseline fallback, partial-source boundaries, approval, provenance and export labelling.

Rationale

v10 is valuable precisely because it records where Bryan was taking the rewrite. Its incompleteness is not a failure and should not be repaired by guessing. v9 supplies a complete movie; v10 supplies a deliberate alternate direction for the opening third. PlotPickle can combine those strengths by preserving both, making the differences visible and allowing the current Reflections rewrite to advance one reviewed decision at a time.

[BryanHarrisScripts]

Licensing follow-up: issue #62 now defines how attribution and modification history must accompany the v9 baseline, unfinished v10 source, and current Reflections rewrite. The version bridge should preserve the original creator, legacy title, source repository and CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, while generating a real modification history from accepted screenplay decisions. Historical ChatGPT-4 assistance is process provenance, not a replacement for Bryan's creator attribution.