TC Ep 287 Script

Reamer, his gma and mother in the greenhouse. gma sitting on a chair sipping tea, reamer standing facing away. director in a corner, while charlee places a food tray next to her.

charlee: please eat, Madam Director. Look, I’ve made your favorites -

gma: leave us, Finch. My grandson and I have much to discuss.

C: y-yes ma’am (scurries out).

gma: [to reamer] you’re leaner than I’d thought you’d be, boy.

Reamer: I am the epitome of good breeding I assure you, Grandmother. Moreso than your Hybrid grandchild, I guarantee.

gma: my my, you have been busy, haven’t you. 

R: I assume you have been also, seeing as you're not actually dead ,as I’ve always been led to believe. You and Grandfather. (Side eyes mom)

Gma: Why does that not surprise me. You have always wished to be rid of me, haven’t you daughter?

director: I let the boy believe what he chose to believe, if it was that you were no longer breathing down my neck, that suited both of us. 

Gma: wishful thinking indeed, then. Your useless grandfather may not be but alas, I am still here.

reamer: (looking at gma’s half-wing) with quite the story, I imagine.

gma: (looks at wing) This? Yes. Although not the cautionary tale you’re probably expecting. I will tell you, Grandson, of the night this Island fell and how it has not recovered since, and then I will tell you how we are going to set it right.

R: I don’t -

gma: Silence. How much do you know of the Crow War?

R:...what we’re taught.

gma: Nothing, then. And Avarie?

R: What I have read in the Archives.

gma: And your lineage?

R:(looks at Director) What I have been told.

gma: Nothing again, I’d wager. I will tell you. Listen. 

(Reamer says nothing. The director takes a bite of food.)

[flashback]

gma: war should not be entered into lightly. 

It is something that stems from years of simmering, an insult here, a casual flex of power there. tension rising, until it boils over. Back when the world was whole, before there was a Them and an Us, there was a King of such stupidity and weakness that those of greater strength began to question his rule, and their own subservience. “Why should we listen to the cowardice of someone who aims to repress us, to hold us back from the greatness we can achieve? Why should we bend the knee, when doing so drags us down to his height?” No, change had to happen, and something needed to give. 

It was not difficult, to gather support. My mother was the instigator, and had generations of anger to use to further her idealisms. Many Raptors were dissatisfied with their lives. Higher taxes on those with wealth in order to support those wanting an easy life. Progress halted, to better control the population. Knowledge rationed, so they didn’t understand they were being subjugated. They would preach equality in everything, unaware that those who benefited most from kingsrule were those closest, his own species. 

However, even with the numbers, we knew we stood no hope if we had no way to organize ourselves. There was much in-fighting, many who thought themselves the better leader. My mother died, and I took her place. A Dove appeared to me, and solved that problem for us.

The Doves had been busy, you see. Back then, they were not as insular as they are today, they would accept all who wished to worship Icarus, and had been diligently gathering their own followers for many years. Until one Dove came along, and brought them to a higher level of fervor. He called himself the Altimeter, and was succinct, convincing, and more than anything supported our plight. He established a hierarchy based on species attributes that we eventually all agreed with. I allowed him to implement it so long as Eagles were at the top. An order was formed, and we progressed with our plans. They had been using this island, Kooup, as their base. They offered to share it with us, while we assembled ourselves for the attack. It took years, and during that time the hierarchy on Kooup became more pronounced. Access was lessened, rights were revoked, and any who complained were silenced. We needed to fulfil the objective, we did not have time to devolve back to in-fighting. This movement was my mother’s legacy. I was not going to fail her.

When the day came, the battle was a blur. 

I fought. The Doves did not. We had infiltrated the Redguard, as many were Raptors and had seen the corruption up close and wanted to put an end to it. It was almost too easy to enter the throne room. Of course, some tried to fight back, but the Ravens had been banished for generations, and the pathetic Ashguard with their “do no harm” dictum were no match. I remember the Crow King, kneeling on the flagstones in front of me, shielding his family. It was not in our plan to kill them. To make a mockery of them, sure, but not kill. The Altimeter appeared then, white feathers dyed red with blood, and slit their throats. 

When I realised his intentions, I went to stop him. I was… punished for it (shows wing getting cut off by doves)

It was only then of course that I realised we’d played right into the Altimeter’s hands (Doves swarm and overrun the Raptors in the throne rm. See that the destruction Scra found there was because of them). Many Raptors had died in battle. When we were pushed back and exiled to Kooup by a resurgence of Avarian forces, we slowly realised we were outnumbered. I was disgraced, the Altimeter had seen to that. They locked me away, to silence me and circumvent any sympathy I may gain for my actions, and I could only watch as our numbers dwindled and theirs grew. I had disowned my first Bondmate and my first child for the cause, I had re-Boded, against our nature, to live what we were preaching, only to later realise that I too had been played for a fool, too full of power to realise the power had never been my own. 

I rotted away in that prison, waiting for my own daughter to free me. But of course that day did not come.

Director: I couldn’t. The Altimeter held you there as leverage. To free you was to kill us all.

gma: (sneers) only because you allowed them to get so powerful. You allowed them to grow their numbers, unchecked. 

reamer: their experiments - (flashback to child with pictures he found on director’s desk)

gma: abominations. 

director: they were doing it anyway, I had to implement some regulations so that -

gma: to the same end. we are overrun, by them and their Corvid counterparts. 

R: why did mother say you wanted the Corvid uprising? 

gma: because, should the Corvids revolt, it gives us leave to build our own opposition without suspicion from the Doves and rally everyone against a common enemy. With the Corvids under your control as you say they are, we can then join forces and eradicate the Doves for good.

R: (sweats) you would fight alongside Crows?

gma: I would use them against a common enemy. Once the battle is over, we will turn on the Corvids and they will meet the same fate, of course. 

R: a plan to doublecross, then.

gma: a plan where Raptors win and rule this island as the utopia it should have been. Then we will rebuild our forces and hunt this new Council governing Avarie. I hear they’re still stuck in the dark ages there, it will be no great difficulty to inundate them even with a fraction of their forces if we have superior weapons. 

(reamer side-eyes mother, who clutches newspaper clipping of reamer’s father)

R:...where have you been this entire time? Where did they keep you?

gma: (sneers) that swampland cesspit down south. Highest security, but that Dove may traverse it as he pleases, and force useful prisoners to do work for him still. Never me though of course, I was better off forgotten.

dir: I sent you a consolation prize

gma: my ex-husband as my overseer, yes, who wouldn’t be grateful of that.

dir: it was at his own request. and it has worked out for you in the end, if you are here.

r: the…Warden. But he’s an -

gma: Osprey. I told you, I have sacrificed much. You are pure Eagle, have no fear about that. 

r: a child, too?

gma: (looks at director) and grandchildren, as I hear it. Although one is not of blood relation. 

R: (looks to director) Cedoc.

dir: yes.

r: That’s why you gave him special treatment. Why you recruited him specifically. Why you locked his sister away. I told you I was chasing her all this time, and you never mentioned anything. I thought it was just over some petty lover’s revenge when I saw that (gestures to the newspaper she’s holding), but you’re saying we’re all related by blood now, too? I knew he resembled the Warden, and now you’re saying the Warden was also once family? How deep do these secrets go, Mother?

dir: I did not think they were relevant. What would you have done differently had you known? 

r: (thinks of keelee locked away, him threatening Ky) they have been nothing but a detriment.

r: (to gma) Your ex-husband freed you, I assume?

gma: Weeks ago there was a system failure at the prison. He smuggled me out while cameras were down. I have been slowly making my way here undercover since. 

r: and here you are.

gma: I cannot show my face to the public, they will make their own assumptions about this (gestures to wing), but that does not mean certain things are not already in motion. You have done well to control the Corvids, Grandson, but that is only the beginning, and there are greater plans at foot.

r: what -

gma: The Crow King has returned to the island.

r: the - how - (thinks of Scra’s face)

gma (to director): you, enough with your moping. get up. boy, come with me. there is much work to be done.

This ep took me a week to write, lore heavy ones always take a bit more brain power and cross referencing hahaaaaa. His gma is such a hardass fr. Still might tweak it a bit when I go to draw the ep.