lulu in the training rooms, punching a bag. Del enters.
D: Your form’s looking good.
L: If I wanted a compliment I’d ask for one.
D: (smiles) of course, of course. Leadership’s called a meeting. Looks like it might be the big one. Seen Rhaast?
L: (stops punching and unwraps her hands) He’s organising the Vultures who just showed up, but I’m sure he’ll be there.
D: Ah, right. Hey…Lulu? I just wanted to say…thank you. for believing in me. and sticking by me when you shouldn’t have. It…helped.
l: Don’t do that.
D: do w -
L: that thing everyone’s doing where we all air our beef and regrets in case one of us dies in battle.
D: I’m not - I’ve wanted to say that for a long time now. I think confronting Lars finally has kinda just put everything into perspective for me, and it feels like my eyes are finally open and I’ve realized how much you being there has gotten me to live outside myself a bit, if that even makes sense. I don’t know. I just wanted to thank you for it.
L: Well, you’re welcome. It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that. But it wasn’t entirely for unselfish reasons, either. We’ve both grown, haven’t we? I’m proud of us.
D: yeah. Me too.
[tiraa fast walks by from a tunnel]
T: You two haven’t seen Vermilioss have you? She needs to get her ass to this meeting.
L: She came by the training room an hour ago saying she was off to the shooting range -
T: Great, thanks.
[follow tiraa down tunnels until she enters a cave set up as a shooting range. doesnt see ree at first]
T: Ree? Oh come on, where -
[hears a sniffle from a corner, finds ree behind a stack of crates]
T: There you are! Why are you -
R: I-I t-think I bro-oke up with F-Farrah -
T: Oh. You two were together?
R: See! No one even knew because she never acted like it! We’re married for flock’s sake!
T: Married?! You never mentioned her! Not even when we were day drinking that one time, that’s like prime day drinking crash out material.
R: We were at The Roost on a secret mission, I couldn’t say anything about her. But I thought, since we were travelling and saving the world together and all, that we might be able to get back to where we left off…except too much has happened between us now, and she just asked me to sleep with her, which is something I’d been hoping for for weeks, but doing it just so she wouldn’t have any regrets feels so - icky, and I couldn't do it. I just don’t think she’d care one way or the other if we were together or not. I don’t think she’d fight for me, y’know?
T: I get it. You’re right, you shouldn’t be with someone like that. You deserve to be with someone who puts you above all else.
R: Like I get her work’s important and -
T: Still. You deserve more.
R: …thanks, Tiraa.
T: No prob. Let’s get to this shitshow of a meeting already.
[in meeting cave. cepni, major, tarrok, brek, brekdad, farrah, kar, scra, neekia, deacon, lars mom, del, lulu and rhaast are there. everyone’s watching a screen that shows a shipping video of tiraa x cyras some civilian created on tweeter. Tiraa stops short when she sees.)
T: what the flock is that
Cep: the civilians have become…creative. Looks like they haven’t tired of your wedding debacle.
t: I can see that. let me guess, you haven’t discouraged it in any way, either.
cep: far be it from us to tell the public what they like.
T: yes, but they don’t have to do it at our expense -
cepni: Is this everyone?
Scra: Ky and Lars are…indisposed.
tiraa: indisposed?
Ree: wow, someone running off and leaving their partner behind, that’s crazy (farrah shoots her a look)
Cepni: well we can’t wait for them, things need to be finalized, and we apparently have some new information that could change some things. Madam Paylette?
larsmom: We have interviewed the Doves we retrieved and have confirmed that the missing Crow Queen of Avarie is being held underneath the First Branch temple, in their labs there.
neekia: She’s -
Deacon: alive?
brekdad: how -
scra: mom.
LM: There is no news as to her current condition, only her possible whereabouts.
cep: yes, well, as that has nothing to do with the operation, we’ll -
scra: nothing to do with it? my mother’s been held for years and experimented on by the Doves -
cep: our goal as an organisation is currently to stop this evening’s Event from decimating the entire Island, not to launch a rescue mission for a single person.
deacon: but this is it! we’ve found the missing royal so many Crows came here for in the first place! We need to -
cep: we are here to stop bloodshed from happening. If we are successful we can make plans to rescue her at a later date -
scra: it’ll be too late by then. If we lose - and You’ve said the odds are stacked against us - we may not get another shot while the Doves are distracted enough. All attention’s been drawn to the Event, they won’t be expecting us to make a play on their home turf. It could be now or never.
cep: we don’t know if she is there, and we can’t spare anyone to check -
Neekia: I’ll go. (looks at Deacon) Our parents came here to find her. I want to finish what they started.
Deacon: I -
Neekia: The Murder needs you here to lead them, and Cyras would never forgive you if you let Scra out of your sight in a fight. I’ll go for all of us (looks at Scra)
ree to scra: You don’t want to go?
Scra: I do. But…the other crows out there need my help more. If this is our chance at changing things for the Corvids on this island, I want to be a part of it.
larsmom: I will go with the Crow. It is the culmination of my search, and I was forced to work in their labs before I was imprisoned, so I know the layout.
neekia: surely you can spare us, cepni.
cep: Fine. We are confronted with a more pressing issue - with the barriers around the City, we are restricted to how we can enter.
larsmom: my son has given you cutters to nullify small areas of the shields that you have utilised successfully, but they are not able to create holes that are large or stable enough for swarms of people to enter through. I created the barriers while working for the Government, and as such I built in a killswitch should this very issue arise. The only problem is that the deactivation point is at the top of each structure. Fortunately, only one needs to be disabled for the entire shield to collapse.
cep: we need a deactivation squad. Tiraa -
T: No. You know my priority in this, Cepni.
cep: but surely -
T: No. I refused to be your figurehead, yet you used me anyway. I have made it very clear my only goal is to rescue Cyras. As you have refused to help on that front, and he is now apparently being used as the main attraction (looks at scra who nods) it has now become both of our problems. He will be used to make some kind of statement that will presumably whip the crowd into a frenzy, commencing the attack just as the Government, or the Dole, or whoever’s running the show at this point, wants. It serves us all if he is in our care and out of the way.
tarrok to cepni: our sources have said they’ve built a structure in the heart of the upper district, it’s reasonable to believe that if they do plan on using him, that’s where it’ll happen.
Cepni: and as you said, it’s in the heart of the upper district, so just how do you propose you even get that far in untouched?
Kar: There is a hidden entrance, connected to an under City tunnel.
cep: and how in Icarus’s name do you figure that?
Kar: Who do you think built the structure? We Sparrows are always called in for menial work. We made sure there was an inbuilt failsafe. Small, mind. Will Only fit a few.
Tiraa: I’m going.
Scra: so am I
deacon: And I
farrah: I’ll be with the Sparrows.
ree looks around, unsure.
cep: (annoyed) fine. Brakindale, deactivation - can you get it done?
Del (shocked): I - ( looks at rhaast and lulu) yeah. We’ll do it.
Major: I will join them.
cepni holds his eye contact, then nods.
cep: fine. (to scra) I assume your Osprey will go with you. What about you, Vermilioss?
Ree: I, uh, I’ll go with them -
[ree’s brothers entering with kieera and kerwik]
Philo: No, little sister, you’ll be with us.
r: I - what - how are you here?!
philo to cepni: Redguard and Ravens lie off the coast, awaiting orders.
Ree: Ky’s crazy mom is here?!
scra: and my father?
cepni: and whose orders do they await?
philo smiles: Mine.