story pipeline/outline

Story/0BattleRoyale.fountain

@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@ PRODUCTION DESIGN: read `Story/Worldbuilding.md` BEFORE storyboarding. Quick ver
 - The BUBBLE is an oblong spacetime-warp (~1km x 0.5km interior via warp ratio; actual physical diameter far smaller). Crystal-ball clear; blue holographic bleed at the edges. One Catmull-Baroque JUMBOTRON above the colosseum sand. Microscopic BUG-SHAPED DRONES (brass-baroque tiny mechanical insects with blue rim-light) swarm inside for coverage. See Worldbuilding §8.
 - Characters follow the **Gumball Rule** — each rendered in a native style (painterly dragon, JoJo / Killer Queen–inflected anime-ink Azure (all skin, not armor — crown included), chibi Starboy, cel-silhouette Rooster, painted chimera Agate, cartoon-steampunk Ubear, portrait-realistic Adrian, anime-realistic Jenni on photo-backgrounds, cursed-fisheye Noname with antennae, pierced-chipper Beanie). Do not homogenize. Do not lampshade the clash.
 - The emote gargoyles and sub-banner chains around the colosseum are **Jenni's commissioned work**—the *fruits* of her private business with Rain, on display throughout the set. She can look at them with quiet satisfaction during her vanity card.
-
-Logline: When an overeager chamberlain pitches a last-one-standing gauntlet to his ruler —and gets volunteered onto the roster himself— he must survive a court of friends and foes, while his real trial is whether he’ll sacrifice mercy for ruthlessness when the only price that matters is a friend’s life.
 */
 
 FADE IN:

Story/0story-pipeline.md

@@ -0,0 +1,226 @@
+# Story Pipeline
+
+## Logline
+
+When an overeager chamberlain pitches a last-one-standing gauntlet to his ruler —and gets volunteered onto the roster himself— he must survive a court of friends and foes, while his real trial is whether he’ll sacrifice mercy for ruthlessness when the only price that matters is a friend’s life.
+
+## Core idea
+
+The film is really a **reinstatement trial**. Azure does not know the arena was green-lit to test whether he earns his place back. Winning the bubble is not the verdict. The **cave crux** is: when ruthlessness is the only way to protect someone he loves, does he pay that price—or cling to mercy in the one currency he actually respects (a close friend’s life)?
+
+Tone sits on a knife edge. The fight plays as **real death** almost throughout: bodies that “die” inside the bubble poof into blue holographic mist—Rain states the rule early; when that mist **doesn’t** appear, someone is still alive (the Rooster beat seeds a late twist). Only Rain’s ascent speech and the recovery tag admit the royale is a **sim** the audience was never told about outright. So you get Hunger-Games pressure, stream-court pageantry, and a hidden ethics exam in one package.
+
+The cast is nine “champions” with pre-existing ties to Rain—allies, rivals, vendors, mods—forced into alliances and betrayals inside a shrinking playspace. **Ubear** is the chaos agent; **Rooster** stays hooded the entire film (the disguise *is* the character); **Azure’s** stand power fires once, at maximum impact, beside Adrian. The ending lands in a recovery space where Adrian’s green sword finally reads as authority when he pins the badge—not when he drew it in the forest.
+
+### World
+
+The story lives in **StreamUniverse**, Legend-adjacent: not medieval fantasy, not modern Earth—a culture **mid-transition**, where magic, math, and primitive computing jointly manufacture reality.
+
+**Catmull-Baroque** is the ruling look: baroque longing rebuilt with subdivision surfaces and low-poly ornament—fleur-de-lis, cabochons, gilded curls that read ornate at a glance and show their mesh up close. It is **actively layered over Brutae**—raw poured concrete slabs and brutal mass—so every set feels like one era killing another in the same frame (warm gold rim on ornament, cool grey fill on concrete).
+
+**BattleRoyale** stages two linked spaces plus a void:
+
+
+| Space             | Role                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
+| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **The courtroom** | Rain’s private throne chamber—MOTD frame on the wall, pet**BD** on a cushion, chat-scroll friezes, no audience. Solid gilded stone until the right wall opens.                                                                                   |
+| **The colosseum** | A floating amphitheatre in dream-black—bleachers, sand, chorus, Jenni’s emote gargoyles and sub-banners on display.                                                                                                                              |
+| **The bubble**    | A crystal-clear spacetime warp on the sand (~1 km × 0.5 km inside, tiny outside), border that shrinks, brass**bug-drones** for coverage, one baroque JUMBOTRON. Deaths mist away upward; the arena obeys gamemaker logic in StreamUniverse dress. |
+
+**The Gumball Rule** governs the cast: each contestant renders in their **native style** (painterly dragon, anime-ink Azure in a peeling Cena shirt, chibi idol, cel-silhouette rooster, steampunk bear arm, etc.) and **never comments** that anyone else looks “wrong.” The clash is the joke; it stays unspoken.
+
+So the world is a **live court broadcast** in a procedurally gilded death-bubble—visually insane, emotionally played straight—while the chamberlain’s real fight is not who’s left standing, but what he’s willing to sacrifice when mercy has a body count.
+
+## Treatment
+
+**BATTLE ROYALE**
+Written by RaincloudTheDragon
+Animated short feature · ~58–62 minutes · StreamUniverse / Legend-adjacent
+
+### Genre & tone
+
+A one-hour **animated survival spectacle** with the bones of *The Hunger Games* and the social skin of a **live court broadcast**: hosting patter, vanity-card intros, chorus in the stands, brass bug-drones for coverage. Played **straight as death** inside the arena; the audience is never told outright that the royale is a **sim** until Rain’s rules speech plants it and the recovery bay pays it off. Comedy lives in character (Azure’s Cena shirt, Starboy’s TED-talk sincerity, Ubear’s theatrical villainy) and in the **Gumball Rule** visual clash—never in characters noticing they look “wrong.”
+
+### World
+
+**StreamUniverse** is a culture mid-becoming: post-medieval, not modern, where magic, mathematics, and primitive computing jointly manufacture the physical world. **Catmull-Baroque**—low-poly gilded ornament on subdivision cages—has won the aesthetic war against **Brutae** raw concrete; every set is ornament bolted onto slab, warm gold rim on curls, cool grey fill on mass.
+
+**BattleRoyale** uses three linked spaces: Rain’s private **courtroom** (throne, MOTD frame, pet BD, no audience); a floating **colosseum** in dream-black (bleachers, Jenni’s emote gargoyles, jumbotron); and a crystal **spacetime-warp bubble** on the sand—vast forest inside, shrinking border, deaths rising as blue holographic mist. Each contestant renders in a **native style** (painterly dragon, anime-ink Azure, cel-silhouette Rooster, steampunk Ubear, etc.) and never comments on the difference.
+
+### Ensemble
+
+
+| Character                         | Role in the piece                                                                                                                          |
+| ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **Raincloud**                     | Ruler-host. Built the court. Cold baseline; warm emulation for the camera. Runs the sim; judges the hidden test.                           |
+| **Azure**                         | Protagonist. Pitched the gauntlet; doesn’t know it’s his**mod reinstatement trial**. Killer Queen–inflected “stand” deploys **once**. |
+| **Adrian**                        | Senior mod on the floor by consent. Green sword = authority. Draws it once (Ubear’s arm); pins the badge at verdict.                      |
+| **Beanie**                        | Azure’s closest friend. Forces the**cave crux**—makes him fight for survival, not perform surrender.                                     |
+| **Ubear**                         | Chaos agent. Mech arm, iron club, theatrical cruelty. Cliff-throw**without** mist-poof (twist seed).                                       |
+| **Rooster**                       | Hood never comes down. “Dies” off the cliff; watches from the dark; wins the arena on paper.                                             |
+| **Agate, Starboy, Jenni, Noname** | Alliance, utility, witness, drift—each dies or exits the field on the mist rule until recovery reunites them.                             |
+
+### Synopsis
+
+**Azure**, a porcelain-periwinkle court chamberlain in a peeling John Cena shirt, convinces **Raincloud**—anthro dragon, absolute host—to stage the court’s first **BattleRoyale**: last creature standing inside a warp bubble wins public glory. Rain accepts, then volunteers Azure onto the roster anyway. No mod desk today; even **Adrian** (green sword, senior mod) walks the floor. Nine champions get vanity-card intros in order of arrival; Rain dissolves the courtroom wall into void-black and a gilded staircase descends to a floating colosseum and the bubble door.
+
+Inside: dawn forest, baroque **cornucopia**, no deaths in the scramble—only alliances. Azure, **Beanie**, **Agate**, and **Starboy** pact on “kindness where possible.” **Rooster** (cloak, beak, bow) and **Noname** slip into the trees. **Ubear** stalks the altruists. **Jenni** maps with spear and tablet. **Adrian** never loots; he watches.
+
+**Act II** is erosion. Ubear breaks the oak-circle pact; **Killer Azure** (Azure’s one stand burst) and Adrian cripple Ubear’s mech arm—Azure still can’t deliver the killing blow. Jenni falls. Starboy dies kind. Agate dies dignified. Adrian takes a club hit and survives on the board. Ubear throws Rooster off the **north cliff**—and the camera **withholds the mist-poof**. The audience should feel a death that didn’t register. **Heart** and **Mind**, two wrong-rendered oracles, visit the shrinking field: *only one walks out; one of you is already past the lesson.*
+
+The bubble contracts. Azure reaches the **east cave** where Beanie waits at the inner edge. She refuses his soft surrender: Rain isn’t testing whether Azure can lose gracefully—he’s testing whether Azure can **want** enough to win when winning costs a friend. They fight for real. Azure runs her through with the green sword; she poofs proud—“Good, skekSil.”
+
+**Rooster** has been in the alcove the whole time. No mist at the cliff; no mercy in the cave. He puts two arrows in Azure—“I guess you didn’t want it enough”—and Azure lunges, poofs, gone. Rooster sits at the cave mouth, hood up, as the bubble inverts. On colosseum sand, one cloak on empty sand. Rain nods once across the void.
+
+### Act structure
+
+**Act I — The court declares war (~15 min)**
+Open on courtroom: MOTD frame, BD, throne without mod desk. Rain announces BattleRoyale; Azure learns he’s **in** the pitch. Vanity cards for all nine. Rules speech: shrink timer, twenty-four-hour cap, **mist-poof elimination** and recovery bay (sim implied, not advertised). Wall opens; stairs through void; entrants through bubble aperture. Forest reveal, cornucopia, pact formed, predators chosen.
+
+**Act II — The kindness tax (~35 min)**
+Ubear gambit and partial stand victory. Cookfire and hunter threads. Jenni’s elimination. Starboy and Agate’s deaths. Adrian wounded. Cliff throw (no mist). Heart/Mind visitation. Final Ubear confrontation; Beanie’s ice after Azure spares Ubear. Scattered survivors pulled inward by shrinking aura. Cave convergence.
+
+**Act III — The cave crux & verdict (~12 min)**
+Beanie’s three-points speech and fatal duel. Rooster’s reveal and Azure’s “defeat.” Bubble collapse; Rooster alone on sand. **Recovery bay**: eight niches reconstitute the dead; Adrian pins Azure’s mod badge—“Breathe, man.” Rain on panel: you didn’t win the arena; you passed the test you didn’t know you were taking. Reinstatement on conditions—defer to Adrian; host next year, never roster again. Beanie’s “Good, skekSil.” Tag: Rooster still hooded on sand, beak toward MOTD frame; Rain in courtroom, *that was instructive.*
+
+### Theme
+
+Public stakes say **merit through survival**. True stakes ask whether Azure can pay **ruthlessness** when mercy is the comfortable performance his ruler has seen too many times. The film argues that “kindness where possible” inside a kill-box is the hardest bravery—and that **winning the game** and **earning the badge** are different exams. Rooster’s arc complicates spectacle: the visible winner lost the moral puzzle; the chamberlain “lost” and passed.
+
+### Visual & sound
+
+**Catmull-Baroque murdering Brutae** in courtroom, colosseum, and folly ruins. Bubble as crystal cathedral of forest. Death = **blue mist column** (except once). Jumbotron and bug-drones as broadcast grammar. Score should support host warmth vs arena dread without winking at the sim until recovery. **Do-not-cut** anchors: Rain’s death speech, no-mist cliff, Beanie cave, single Killer Azure beat, badge pin, final MOTD/Rooster tableau.
+
+### Note on ending perception
+
+The audience may believe **Rooster won**. The verdict reframes victory: Azure failed the last shot in the cave and still earned reinstatement because he **wanted it enough** when Beanie made him try. Rooster remains on the sand as unresolved crown—hood up—while the court’s real judgment happens backstage.
+
+## Scene-by-scene outline
+
+Runtime target ~58–62 min. **Gametime** stamps from script where noted. Deaths: ✓ = mist-poof (eliminated from field); ✗ = no mist (still alive).
+
+---
+
+### ACT I — Court & gate (~15 min)
+
+**1. INT. COURTROOM — DAY (STREAM TIME)**
+FADE IN. Crane to obsidian throne; empty mod desk; MOTD frame (squirrel-girl portrait); BD on cushion. Raincloud descends, hosts solo. Announces first **BattleRoyale**—no one exempt; mod desk gone. “A little bird told me this was someone’s idea.”
+
+**2. INT. COURTROOM — FLOOR — CONTINUOUS**
+Azure in Cena shirt takes credit for the pitch; Rain loved it “enough to put you in it.” Azure wanted to host; Rain says Adrian is on the floor, so is he. “Prove your worth in the arena you designed.” Azure bows; Rain introduces the champions.
+
+**3–11. INT. VANITY FIELD — VOID (×9)**
+Rain V.O. intros in arrival order: **Adrian** (green sword, senior mod, bored eyes) → **Azure** (disgraced ex-mod, jester who originated the royale) → **Agate** (quiet, oldest patience) → **Ubear** (imitator/subverter, mech arm) → **Rooster** (hood, beak, rumor) → **Noname** (antennae, low heat) → **Jenni** (commissioned the emote work on the walls) → **Starboy** (chaos comic) → **Beanie** (Azure’s ally, weekend menace).
+
+**12. INT. COURTROOM — FLOOR**
+Nine in arc on stone circle. Rain stands: “The shape of the day.” Dissolves **right wall** to void-black; floating **colosseum** + bubble on cradle visible. Rules: last standing; bubble **contracts**; 24-hour cap; deaths → **blue mist** → recovery bay (“death is unpleasant whether it’s permanent or not”). Azure sent **first through the door**. Floor opens into gilded stairs through void.
+
+**13. EXT. VOID — DESCENDING STAIRS**
+Nine silhouettes descend; colosseum grows; chorus murmur; bubble scales up.
+
+**14. INT. COLOSSEUM — UNDER THE BLEACHERS**
+Aperture at bubble base; chorus feet overhead. Azure at the door; file enters.
+
+**15. INT. COLOSSEUM — HIGH BALCONY**
+Rain alone at rail; releases **bug-drones** into bubble as seam seals. “Show me.”
+
+**16. INT. COLOSSEUM — THE STANDS**
+Silent chorus pan (Gumball cast: hot-dog vendor, pirate, foxes, clock-head, etc.). Jumbotron wakes to forest feed; crowd hush.
+
+**17. INT. BUBBLE — FOREST — DAWN (GAMETIME 0)**
+Reveal: tree → forest → **cornucopia** → cliffs (north + east/cave) → bubble wall. Nine figures; drones deploy.
+
+**18. INT. CORNUCOPIA CLEARING**
+“Bloodbath” without deaths: Azure + Beanie back-to-back; Agate/Starboy join → **pact** (“kindness where possible”). Rooster takes bow/quiver; Noname trails. Ubear loots club/scrap, watches altruists. Adrian skips weapons, observes. Jenni takes spears. Groups disperse; Ubear stalks pact.
+
+---
+
+### ACT II — Forest war (~35 min)
+
+**19. INT. FOREST — FALLEN OAK CLEARING (~0:30)**
+Starboy’s “kindness is brave” speech. **Ubear gambit**: threatens pact; Agate pins mech arm; Beanie at throat. Starboy argues **spare him**; pact releases Ubear (arm damaged). Ubear’s prophecy: pact will eat itself; “only a fool refuses to kill.” Exits; alliance shaken.
+
+**20. EXT. FOREST — COOKFIRE (~1:00)**
+Rooster cooks fish; Noname across fire. Quiet history. Noname attacks; Rooster already has dagger **in** Noname—✓ **Noname** poofs. Rooster finishes fish, takes bow, leaves fire burning.
+
+**21. INT. FOREST — BAROQUE FOLLY (~1:20)**
+Ubear repairing arm. **Adrian** draws **green sword** (first time)—cuts mech arm at elbow; Ubear flees with severed piece. Adrian: “That was a mistake.”
+
+**22. INT. FOREST — ALLIANCE ENCAMPMENT (~3:00)**
+Ubear (repaired/scavenged arm) ambushes bowl encampment. Traps Agate mid-flight—✓ **Agate** poofs (wing-shaped mist). ✓ **Starboy** killed after “you’ll never be kind”; Azure flees; Beanie sends him on, stays behind. Ubear walks away; Beanie alone sharpening knives.
+
+**23. EXT. FOREST — OPEN GROUND (~4:30)**
+Jenni mapping with tablet/stylus; Ubear ambush; javelin hits shoulder; spear fails; neck broken mid-shield conjure—✓ **Jenni** poofs.
+
+**24. EXT. FOREST — NORTHERN CLIFF (~5:15)**
+Rooster hunting; Ubear drops from ledge; throws Rooster off cliff—✗ **no mist** (twist seed). Ubear leaves; faint sounds below. Rooster alive in hiding.
+
+**25. EXT. FOREST — CLEARING — SHRINK ONSET (~8:00)**
+Aura eating trees. Crossroads: Azure, distant Beanie, hidden Rooster on boulder, Adrian west, Ubear south. **Heart & Mind** appear: “Only one walks out”; nod toward Rooster—“already past the lesson.” Vanish. Ubear laughs.
+
+**26. EXT. FOREST — SAME CLEARING — CONTINUOUS**
+**Ubear fight**: Azure summons **Killer Azure** (one stand burst); Adrian joins; Ubear crippled further. Adrian clubbed to ribs. Azure **cannot** finish Ubear—stand retreats. Beanie enters: “Move.” ✓ **Ubear** double-knifed by Beanie; walks east toward shrink.
+
+**27. EXT. FOREST — SAME CLEARING — MOMENTS LATER**
+Azure tends Adrian; Adrian: couldn’t finish him; “test isn’t over”; “Beanie’s a smart kid.” ✓ **Adrian** poofs; Azure keeps **green sword**.
+
+**28. EXT. FOREST — EAST SIDE (~11:00)**
+Shrink advanced; jumbotron shows bubble compressing. Azure runs for **east cave**; Beanie already at mouth.
+
+**29. INT. CAVE — EAST CLIFF BASE**
+**Cave crux**: Beanie refuses Azure’s soft surrender—forces real fight for reinstatement test. Duel; she overextends; Azure runs her through—✓ **Beanie** poofs (“Good, skekSil”). Azure: “I wanted it enough.”
+
+**30. INT. CAVE MOUTH — MOMENT LATER**
+Rooster in alcove whole film. Two arrows—✓ **Azure** poofs. Rooster sits at mouth; bubble inverts; forest gone.
+
+---
+
+### ACT III — Verdict (~12 min)
+
+**31. INT. COLOSSEUM — SAND FLOOR**
+Bubble collapsed to bowl-sized sphere. **Rooster** alone on sand, hood up, bow on knees. Rain nods across void. Drones exit side door.
+
+**32. INT. RECOVERY BAY — BACKSTAGE**
+Eight niches: dead reconstitute (Agate, Starboy, Jenni, Ubear, Adrian, Beanie, Noname, etc.). Azure’s niche finishes. **Adrian pins mod badge** on Cena tee—“Breathe, man.” Beanie: “Good, skekSil.” Jumbotron still shows Rooster on sand.
+
+**33. INT. COLOSSEUM — SAND FLOOR**
+Rain stands (second time): declares Rooster **field winner**; “what is due the winner” later. Calls **Azure**.
+
+**34. INT. RECOVERY BAY**
+Rain on panel: you didn’t win the arena; you passed the test you didn’t know—“in the cave, you wanted it enough.” **Reinstatement** with conditions: defer to Adrian always; host next royale, never roster again. Beanie thanks Rain; “I like my badge too.” Rooster on feed: “Good fight.”
+
+**35. INT. COLOSSEUM — SAND FLOOR (TAG)**
+Wide: Rooster on sand through transparency; Rain in courtroom; MOTD frame; BD asleep. House lights lower.
+
+**FADE OUT.**
+
+---
+
+### Elimination tracker
+
+
+| Order | Character | Scene          | Mist?           |
+| ------- | ----------- | ---------------- | ----------------- |
+| 1     | Noname    | 20 Cookfire    | ✓              |
+| 2     | Agate     | 22 Encampment  | ✓              |
+| 3     | Starboy   | 22 Encampment  | ✓              |
+| 4     | Jenni     | 23 Open ground | ✓              |
+| 5     | Rooster   | 24 Cliff       | ✗ alive        |
+| 6     | Ubear     | 26 Clearing    | ✓              |
+| 7     | Adrian    | 27 Clearing    | ✓              |
+| 8     | Beanie    | 29 Cave        | ✓              |
+| 9     | Azure     | 30 Cave mouth  | ✓ (arena loss) |
+
+**Arena “winner” on sand:** Rooster (scene 31). **Judgment winner:** Azure (scene 34).
+
+---
+
+### Intercuts & special beats (don’t lose in cut-down)
+
+- Rain **death speech** (scene 12) — plants sim + mist rule
+- Adrian **green sword** draw (21); detach arm; badge pin (32)
+- **Killer Azure** once (26)
+- **No-mist cliff** (24) + Rooster watching from boulder (25)
+- Beanie **three-points** + fight (29)
+- Heart/Mind (25)
+- Jenni vanity nod to her gargoyles (card 8 / stands 16)