redraft: major death planting rewrites sc16+18

Story/0BattleRoyale.fountain

@@ -1233,7 +1233,7 @@ CUT TO:
 
 EXT. FOREST - NORTHERN CLIFF - LATER (GAMETIME ~5:15) #16#
 
-/* The cliff throw. Write this with care. The audience MUST register the missing mist-poof. Stage the toss in long enough that the camera has clear space to NOT show the VFX. Let the long silence at the bottom of the cliff do the work. */
+/* The cliff throw. PLANT: before the toss, Ubear asks where Noname is; Rooster (hood up, in Ubear's grip) answers in his formal register — credits the cookfire kill. No one else is in earshot; the exchange is for Ubear and the audience. Ubear then presumes the hood dead after the throw despite no mist rising. Write the toss with care. The audience MUST register the missing mist-poof. Stage the toss in long enough that the camera has clear space to NOT show the VFX. Let the long silence at the bottom of the cliff do the work. */
 
 Rooster is moving through the forest at the base of the northern cliff — unhurried, hood up, bow strung, an arrow between his fingers already. Not hunting. *Drifting inward* — angling, the way he has all day, toward the dead center of the shrinking field, where the wall will reach last. The arrow is for a threat, not for a quarry; the bow stays low. He keeps a wide berth around the noise on the ridge above — the loudest thing left in the bubble, the one body he most wants distance from. Cloak flows silently over rock.
 
@@ -1247,7 +1247,28 @@ Rooster scrabbles, tries to roll. Ubear grabs the cloak at the collar with the m
 
 UBEAR
 (breathing hard)
-Loud bird. Never saw the point of it. Don't care.
+Where's your stupid alien catfreak?
+
+ROOSTER
+(from inside the hood, unhurried — the grip does not hurry him)
+He was persuaded by your arguments on the inevitability of conflict. His eager attempt at aggression granted him swift audience with Death.
+
+Ubear's grin widens.
+
+UBEAR
+Dead bird talks big.
+
+ROOSTER
+The bird is not dead.
+
+UBEAR
+(laughing)
+Then show yourself.
+
+The hood does not move. The beak does not tip. Rooster has nothing to show and will not try.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+Loud, stupid bird. Never saw the point of it. Don't care.
 
 He turns. Walks Rooster to the cliff edge. The cloak pools and drags. The hood stays up.
 
@@ -1275,7 +1296,7 @@ The bug-drones above the cliff have *not* streamed downward to cover a confirmed
 
 A jumbotron-angle intercut from far away: the giant screen over the colosseum floor, Rain watching from the throne. Rain's face does not move. But the green eyes flick once, off-center, assessing.
 
-At the top of the cliff, Ubear gives up. Turns. Walks off.
+At the top of the cliff, Ubear gives up. Shrugs, turns. Walks off.
 
 /*
 At the bottom of the cliff — not shown, withheld, deliberately — a small sound: the faintest of cloak-on-rock friction noises. A single, short breath.
@@ -1419,9 +1440,59 @@ CUT TO:
 
 EXT. FOREST - SAME CLEARING - CONTINUOUS #18#
 
-/* The Ubear team-up. Azure and Adrian converge on Ubear as the shrink narrows the geography and the four of them are now in the same clearing. Azure's echo deploys — its one flashy moment in the film. Adrian is wounded in the fight. Beanie enters at the end with ice in her eyes. */
+/* The Ubear team-up. PLANT: Ubear's halftime tally counts Rooster among the dead — Azure (and Adrian) accept that. Azure's echo deploys — its one flashy moment in the film. Adrian is wounded in the fight. Beanie enters at the end with ice in her eyes. */
 
-Ubear comes first at Azure — unbothered, committed, iron club materializing from a hip loop and mech arm cocked.
+Ubear steps into the open — not charging yet. Iron club hooked on his hip loop. Mech arm ticking wrong. He ticks the dead off on his meat fingers, one by one, enjoying the math.
+
+UBEAR
+(loud, for the clearing)
+Halftime.
+
+He holds up four fingers.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+Starboy. Agate. Jenni. And the hood — all fell to my steel.
+
+A beat. He adds a fifth finger, almost tender.
+
+AZURE
+(shouting)
+No! You're lying!
+
+UBEAR
+(calmly)
+Call me a bully or a beast, but please, don't call me a liar. It's all true.
+
+Azure in despair. Adrian grips his pommel tighter.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+Noname was taken by Rooster. Before the bird went over the cliff.
+
+/* Beanie at the north treeline has gone very still. Adrian, west, does not move. Rooster is not here — he is elsewhere in the forest, alive, after the cliff. */
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+(counting down the survivors on his hand now)
+That leaves me. The Mod.
+
+He points the club at Adrian.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+The Pothead — in the trees.
+
+A glance north. Beanie at the treeline does not flinch.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+The *blue* Catfreak.
+
+He points the club at Azure.
+
+UBEAR (CONT'D)
+(booming, almost happy)
+You'd better be prepared to die.
+
+Azure's grip tightens on the short sword. /*Ubear said the hood went over the cliff. Azure believes it. - Editorializing*/
+
+Ubear comes at Azure — unbothered, committed, iron club sweeping up, mech arm cocked.
 
 Azure braces. The short sword is an embarrassment in his hand. He knows it.
 
@@ -1545,7 +1616,7 @@ Yeah, whatever.
 She is in front of him now. Both knives reversed in her hands, blades flat along her forearms.
 
 UBEAR
-*Kindness** —
+*Kindness* —
 
 BEANIE
 Shut up, Ubear.
@@ -1903,30 +1974,34 @@ He turns, slow, still on one knee.
 From the alcove, Rooster steps into the blue cave-glow. Longbow. Arrow nocked. String drawn. Beak angled down the shaft. Hood up.
 
 AZURE
-(not really surprised, just tired)
-...hey, man.
+(frozen — not tired, not ready)
+How...?
 
 ROOSTER
 Greetings, skekSil.
 
-A beat.
+A beat. Azure's breath catches wrong.
 
 AZURE
-(slowly)
-I thought —
-
-/*Azure has no way of knowing that Rooster was presumed dead. I need a planting before Ubear dies, I'm gonna make him brag about all who have died, and add Rooster telling Ubear that he killed Noname.*/
+(voice breaking)
+You're — the hood — Ubear said you fell —
 
 ROOSTER
 (lightly)
-Mm.
+Ubear was mistaken.
 
 AZURE
-You didn't poof.
+The cliff. There was no —
 
 ROOSTER
 (the beak tips, a smile in the voice that the face will not show)
-No.
+No poof. Yes.
+
+AZURE
+I thought you were dead.
+
+ROOSTER
+You thought wrong. I'm light on my feet, and adept at landing on them. A cliff is no challenge for me.
 
 Azure stands. Very slow. Green sword in one hand, trailing. He does not raise it.