RAYA E4 - Talon

Episode 4: Kumandra’s Notoriety

Theme: Kumandra’s repeat interactions / reputation

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Ideas

• repeat interactions—REPUTATION
• switcheroo fake artefacts, how to trust the real one?
• Boun and Sisu on the hunt for a ship component fix part, that broke by the Druun because Raya doubted Boun was going offshore to memoralize parents
• dragon-fruit
• remember to remind Raya’s spasm PTSD once
• Heart refugees undercover in Talon
  • Raya is excited to meet her own people, trusting them!
  • but they betray her — you can’t even trust your own
  • foreshadowing Raya’s betrayal?
• masks, costumes, disguises
  • oh there’s a Mask Festival?
    • the real dragons/help are the friends we make along the way! (?)
  • a chase scene where everyone looks the same
  • Sisu doesn’t want/need to wear a mask
    • would be cool if she turns into a dragon, people think she’s a costume
    • people are just so numb with lies that they don’t know the truth
• Every trust can be broken for a price
  • Raya bargains to buy off Talon’s Gem shard by betrayal
• “Everyone’s a fake, anyways. A dishonest man, you can trust to be dishonest.”
  • A greedy man, you can trust to win as the highest bidder
• Namaari’s scout as an active agent
  • the scout steals Raya’s whip-sword artefact and returns to Namaari
  • Raya is more angry at Namaari — it’s her last attachment to her father, as well as a Gem shard
    • Raya also needs 4/5 gems for her secret plan to work
  • Naamari actually hadn’t commanded it. She sighs and makes plans to make use of it. She’s still upset with her scout, and decommissions him. Her true motives are still murky.
  • now the gang ends the story down with one gem shard in the hands of the enemy.
  • they will encounter Namaari in Spine.
• two Talon locals: one child, one cynical parent figure
• Raya’s stuck — she sacrifices(?) herself, resigns to die (water? Druun?)
  • she tells Boun and Talons: follow Sisu. She trusts them with the artefacts (she’s been stingy with them all this while). It’s really her last moment. She echoes her father’s One Kumandra.
  • The parent figure believes Raya.The parent figure switches places, so that the parent figure gets turned to stone, trusting that Raya will really turn all the stone people back.
    • maybe the parent figure lost someone to stone
  • the Talon kid now joins them on their journey, having to revive parent figure
  • maybe it’s the kid who believes and self-sacrifices
  • maybe the Fang scout imposter is here too, still taking an artefact for themselves
• Namaari subplot
  • early scene showing dispatching of scout?
  • talk with one of her party, an older guy who remembers before the Scattering
  • they have to shortcut through Heart to get to Fang early
    • Namaari’s also PTSD’d at Heart
    • maybe she got the mentor’s brother petrified at Heart
    • they don’t know the full truth? Virana pushed the false narrative that Raya shot first after leading Namaari into a trap?
  • They get to Fang by the end of the episode — they need to be in Spine by the next
• Sisu gets captured
• Raya says she doesn’t trust friends
  • but Raya actually has one Talon contact/confidante from long ago
  • that person had been assembling a team
• fourth guy who trains the Ongi monkeys
  • but after the failure, the monkey trainer gets petrified — the monkeys follow the gang
  • maybe he spends more time with Sisu, since he’s not a major suspect
• rivers drying
  • older buildings are higher up above the water, where the water level used to be — the “center” is higher up
  • newer buildings, at the fringes, especially docks, are lower
• needing a team
  • Raya has no reputation, can’t get anywhere
  • she needs a group of people to vouch for her
  • these people who have built up reputation and trustworthiness, only to break it for Raya
  • they are inherently betray trust in order to work in the team
    • they have all the reasons to double-triple-cross
• thematic stances
  • quick reputation
    • one-strike collab—Boun, Sisu
    • one-strike betray—Raya
  • don’t play the reputation game—they really lose out (avoidant reputation)
  • collab for reputation
    • just to betray for the highest bidder (fleeting reputation)
    • some really try to gain reputation
      • but the ones who are most popular and whom people vouch for, are the ones who have betrayed to get good recommendation in the first place (false reputation)
      • the recruiter has fake reputation—he has vouchers, but substance is fake
    • inconclusive reputation—perverted positive, waiting good but too long
• setting
  • reputation is everything.
  • you can’t use previous strategy of “always betray” because your reputation shows
• Talon locals all have long fingernails (on one or more fingers)
  • lol [[2024-11-19]] (broken link, note not found) IRL saw my cab driver had this, and made a connection
  • like some Asians like to keep one finger’s fingernail super long
  • SUPER in theme with “Talon” the name
  • lots of mosquitoes, so this helps to scratch. Spot locals by mosquito bites
  • This is why Raya needs to work in a team—she has much shorter fingernails, she can’t grow it overnight
    • she also has wound from last episode
  • the Fang spy has long fingernails
    • fake nails? (hmm maybe Raya tries this at the start, only to be found out?)
    • you need real nails, real reputation, built up just for this

Snowflake Method

• Raya must trust her team of traitors to obtain Talon’s Gem shard.
• Raya enters Talon, ready to semi-trust trustworthy allies. She assembles a necessary team to obtain the Gem shard. She gets pressed by an unknown Fang Spy, besides her own “teammates”. She must decide whether to sellout her sucky team, or to keep her own promises.
• Character Profiles
  • Raya’s goal is to get Talon’s Gem shard from the princess. However, she has a one-strike reputation. She needs to learn how to rightly evaluate the overtime reputation of others—and how to build her own.
• Quarters
  • Q1: Raya attempts Goal #1 of her heist, but fails for insufficient reputation/group-work. In the fallout of her failure, she reluctantly works with a team.
  • Q2: During the Ghost Mask Festival, the gang kidnap the wandering Talon princess. A present Fang spy and Raya’s mega-heist is revealed, disrupts the plan. But with collaboration, they achieve another Goal #1.
  • Q3: The gang solidifies, trading secrets in trust. This makes them more effective. Suddenly, the whip-sword is stolen. Raya interrogates the group and they fall apart. Raya does something huge. Sisu is captured by the traitor. The Fang spy plans to release Druun onto the Talon floating city (epic. but why?).
  • Q4: Raya, alone, goes to save Sisu. Sisu is freed to push back the Druun. But too weak alone, Raya is captured to be petrified—she makes her final speech. It rouses the one of the pair to sacrifice themselves. The other person escapes with Raya, Sisu and Boun.

Character Profiles

• names
  • Noi, Ngom, Ngang, Ngyet, Muong, Phu, Vien, Ding, Lam
• the fake princess
  • princess faker — nephew/niece? how do they know how to fake?
  • brings Raya directly into palace
  • maybe they gotta “try to locate her” in the Mask Festival
    • but Ngang is engineering this whole intro quest
  • while avoiding the actual Talon palace people
• the Talon contact/friend
  • recruiter
    • maybe: unsolicited recruiting? Raya doesn’t know they’re recruited
    • actually had recruited all of them beforehand
    • Raya’s initial brush with conflict, an assailant tries to take her artefacts
      • she beats him, and recruiter steps in, claiming misunderstanding
      • they work together
      • later, is revealed that recruiter actually tried to get the artefacts off Raya, for himself
  • is a longtime Raya confidant
    • Raya has friends?? She does, but transactional and sussy
    • knows Gem mission?
    • is the spy: MASSIVE BETRAYAL, team lost its recruiter
    • can’t be the spy: knows Raya’s water phobia?
  • ex-guard / off-duty guard official
    • actually. so he’s gotta flee Talon with the gang at the end?
    • plan reveal
      • shows reverence for Sisu earlier
      • scoffs at human!Sisu. That can’t be Sisu.
  • a mirror of Raya’s parenting
    • betrays, just like how Raya had betrayed
    • sacrifices self for the child
    • now the child has to push on without parent figure, just like Raya
    • or… child sacrifices, and the parent figure needs to push on??
  • he’s Raya’s UNCLE
    • that is, Raya’s mother’s brother (or mother’s sister’s wife?)
    • implications
      • Raya has a Talon family member
      • Raya is close to the only shown intermarriage between tribes
      • Raya has a good + personal relationship with a Talon person
      • Raya has some hope for being trusting
    • This uncle is not Heart. He is Talon, born and raised, in all mannerisms
    • yet being related by marriage, Raya trusts this uncle a lot
    • it’s implied that he was Benja’s mediator to getting Talon to join the Kumandra Feast
    • what if, he was the one who fired the crossbow into Benja, a non-Fang sort of initiated everything?
• the recruit and the fodder
  • monkey whisperer
  • steals the satchel at the start?
    • recognised the GEMS, didn’t know that was the Raya — stole just to be safe
    • Raya assumes she recruited Vien, but it’s all planned by recruiter
      • recruiter stationed Vien at the package for Raya
      • means really knew it was Raya
• the metalsmith
  • the one who embedded Raya’s gem into the Whip-Sword
  • Raya had trusted this person with the knowledge of the Gem
• the spy
  • also a replacement sailor, intended to replace Boun
    • but since is really a spy, Boun needs to step back in
  • there’s another assailant that explicitly & regularly disrupts their plans—Raya thinks that is the actual Fang spy.
    • but that assailant is defeated and is revealed to be Talon
    • Raya panics—if not this person, then who’s the spy?
    • it’s at this moment that the spy reveals his true self, springs into action!
  • Raya had concealed the gem artefacts to a strap on Tuk-Tuk. That way, if she gets captured, she doesn’t lose the artefacts
• actually the Tail family-backstabber from E1?

Plot Outline

all this while, Raya struggles to work with a team — Team Talon is such a failure, that endgame Raya Gang would show such an improvement

v1

• E1 (comfort zone):
  • Raya + Sisu skills to get Gem
• E2 (world lacking):
  • inciting incident set piece
  • The gang – Raya needs them, forms a plan
• E3 (threshold unfamiliar):
  • Raya goes, depending on the gang
  • Mask festival execution
    • failure
  • there’s a Fang spy/scout
• E4: (adapt to win):
  • risk shown
    • why should we trust you?
    • everyone confesses a secret
  • Kidnapping Dang Hai?
  • Fang spy has been in Talon a long time
  • getting gem shard
  • Everyone knows Raya is in town for the gem
    • Think: Boun spilled the beans?
• E5: (claim the prize):
  • Talon on lockdown
  • Tuk-Tuk comes out,
  • missing Sisu? Noi?
• E6: (pay the price):
  • start with:
    • whip-sword stolen. → sets up the desperation of Raya’s sacrifice
    • she’s upset. interrogates the group.
  • someone tries to bribe the spy — the spy reveals! disaster!
  • parent-figure betrays child-figure!
  • monkey man gets petrified!
  • team scrambles
  • Raya/Sisu gets caught to retrieve the Gem.
• E7: (clashing worlds):
  • She betrays others?
• E8: (battling changes):
  • child-figure double-double cross sacrifice
    • child-figure realises this isn’t the world he wants to live in
    • child self-sacrifices, in hope in Sisu
    • Later, parent joins Raya with that guilt.
  • Raya finds out whipsword was stolen
  • end shot, traitor on Serlot with whip-sword, leaving a burning Talon. “Glory to Fang.”

Plot Outline v2

E1: Raya plans to retrieve Gem by herself Inciting: Threat of Fang spy and losing Gem, while getting new Gem E2: Raya needs help navigating the watery treacherous Talon

• In the end, Raya defeats them; but recruiter halts her, and reveals the team
• actually… recruiter’s plan A was to steal them. but failing, plan b is to work together 1Plot: E3: Raya E4: Raya Midpoint: Raya accepts secondhand help 3Plot: CxTP: CxM:

Spy is Nan’s (3Plot or Q4MP)

Workspace

E1 - Comfort

Namaari/Khaan Hook

EXT. MOUNTAINTOP - DUSK

• Namaari and her squad are surveying from a lookout point, making camp
• The glow of a fire appears, just before the horizon, along a river
  • Junior Soldier: “Khaan should’ve taken a Serlot and arrived sooner at Talon.”
  • her own Serlot roars a yawn
  • Namaari, “Then Raya will know Khaan is our Fang scout, barging in on a large noisy Serlot.”
• Namaari turns back to an older, decorated soldier
  • “General Thaam, can’t we find another route back home to Fang?”
  • “Princess, if you want to arrive home in five days, avoiding the Druun, then we need to go through Heart.”
  • Namaari’s reluctant.
  • “I know how much that night hurt you, twenty-five years go. I was there, too. But if Raya is out to steal the Gem shards from every tribe, then your mother needs to make plans.”
  • (What? Namaari, hurt? Wasn’t she the one who backstabbed Raya?) #payme
• “Okay, General. Let’s hope Khaan succeeds in—”

Goodbye Boun

EXT. TALON - NIGHT

• Chyron: TALON
  • (about five days after E1, but it’s not explicit to audience)
• some establishing shots: the floating platforms, the merchant boats, lanterns, noisy crowds

EXT. DOCKS, TALON - NIGHT

• The battle-torn Steamboat pulls into Talon docks. The gang steps out and takes a walk.
• Sisu ogles: I didn’t know Talon became so… beautiful…
  • Boun picks a perfect lychee out of an overflowing crate
  • Boun: If only the families in Tail could’ve banded together like this…
  • Raya snatches the lychee: “Yeah, a band of scammers and frauds. That’s fake.”
  • Raya discreetly tosses the lychee into the water. Catfish snap over each other to win it. One catfish slurps it, but on biting down on it—its life and colour drains to grey. It floats up, dead.
• Boun: “Then why do people still trade with them?”
  • Raya: “Because like it or not. Without Talon, the tribes wouldn’t trade with each other at all. Kumandra would’ve really fallen.
  • “Just keep your guard up. Be careful who you buy from.”
• Raya: Reminds me, the payment for the past week of delicacies on the Steamboat… and for saving my life. (gesturing to her wound that Boun bandaged)
  • Boun’s eyes widen as a bunch of coins drop into his hand
  • Raya: Double of what I promised. I’m sorry I assumed the worst of you. Purchase your ship repairs and go crazy with cooking ingredients!
• “Thank you, Raya! And good luck with stealing Talon’s Gem artefact.”
  • Raya double-takes, sternly: “What?! Shhhh! How—? Never mind. If people find out, they’ll—don’t you tell ANYONE about this.”
    • #payme later, the whole of Talon finds out. Raya narrows down her teammates, concludes it must be Boun. But it’s the spy.
  • “But… can’t I know about it?”
  • “No.”
  • “…s’okay. I didn’t tell you about what happened to my family, either.”
  • “In the end, we both still got what we wanted!”
  • Boun sadly nods, shrugs, poking at his disfigured ship. “I’m going to find ship repair parts now. Raya, I trust that you’re a good guy… but I’ll never know for sure.” He wanders off.

Archive

• Boun reaches out his hand at the first stall for a fruit.
  • Raya catches his hand and leads him away. She whispers, “That’s fake.”
  • Sisu: “Fake?” They regroup away and look around at the stalls.
  • Raya: “They’re almost all fake. They’re banded together alright, a band of scammers and frauds.”
  • “Then why do people still trade with them?”
  • “Because like it or not. Without Talon, the tribes wouldn’t trade with each other.
  • Kumandra would’ve fallen. But you still have to keep your guard up.”
• Boun: Is that why you have those glowing weapons?
  • Raya defensively hides her satchel.
  • Sisu stares through Raya.
  • Raya analytically confesses. “Yes, I am not from Tail. Yes, I am collecting glowing weapons from each tribe. I have an important mission to make things right, for everyone. I’m sorry I’m not telling the whole story, but this is the truth.”
  • “Okay.” “Okay?”
  • “Yeah. I didn’t tell you about my parents, either. Like it or not, I guess I have to trust you just enough to win together. Like the people of Talon.”
• “Gus-gus. Stay safe, Boun.”
  • “Take care, Raya, Sisu!” %%

Hello, Talon

• Raya heel-turns, but grabs onto Sisu (for fear of water)
• Raya monologues: The boat’s damage runs our schedule three days late. Tuk-Tuk is swimming nearby. I’ve got my whistle to call him when we need to escape. Now Sisu, you—
• Sisu’s exasperated: “Boun already knows. Let him join!”
  • Raya: He’s… too young.
  • Sisu: We need to travel by boat if you want to avoid the Druun AND be faster than Namaari.
  • Raya: Fine. We’ll find another sailor. Boun knows too much.
• Raya: we need to get new clothes to blend in. Follow close.

EXT. MARKET STREET, TALON - NIGHT

• Raya leads Sisu down a street
  • crowds jostle, vendors haggle prices
  • the oddly-dressed pair are singled out by the vendors, hard to move
  • vendors:
    • “Aha! This headscarf goes beautifully with your traditional Tail wear!”
    • “First purchase, half price!”
    • “Hello ladies, I’m from Tail too! Let me show you around!”
  • Sisu: Wow, everyone’s so friendly!
    • Sisu gets caught by a lotion salesperson lol—“Raya, Raya, give me money to buy this lotion”

EXT. ALLEY, TALON - NIGHT

• Raya pulls Sisu around into an alley
  • Raya comforts herself: Soon, we’ll be at Spine. On solid ground. With saner people.
• Raya prostrates herself on the boardwalk and reaches under. She retrieves a bundled package.
  • Raya: I’ve prepared this last time I was here. There’s local clothes and supplies.
  • The pair put on the local clothing outerwear
  • Raya backpacks the rest
• Sisu picks up a note hidden under the package.
  • Sisu: Hey, what’s this? “Guard up. Fang spy arrived a few days ago.” You wrote this to yourself?
• (they kena attacc)

The Plan

…

• Khaan or Noi attempts to steal the bag? plays it off as a petty thief?
  • Khaan already recommended by Nan. Noi suss’ed for going straight for the bag
  • Noi takes the bag because:
    • Noi says she’s secretly Talon princess
      • she knows Raya is here for the gems?
      • she knows Raya from before?
    • but she really knows about Raya because Nan set her up to impress Raya
      • to get an extra cut of the coin reward from Raya?
    • Raya needs more backup — she needs “Noi” %%

• Sisu: You have a friend?!
• Raya: I have an accomplice.
• Raya: Sisu, this is Nan.
• masks %%

• Sisu: Okay. My dragon-senses are telling me the… thing we want… is that way.
  • Raya: That’s the Talon Palace, just as I guessed. It’s heavily guarded.
• Sisu: Okay, so I was thinking you let me go first.
  • Huh?
  • With the Talon Chief. Hang Dai?
  • “Dang Hai. And no, you can’t come”
  • I’ve been asleep for 500 years, the Druun monsters are back, and I’m the only dragon who isn’t stone.
  • if he finds out you’re really Sisu, then he’ll imprison you and use you. Easier: I’ll just dip in, get the gem, and get out.”
  • We don’t need to steal, we can work together.
  • Things are different now, Sisu. The chiefs may have worked together 500 years ago, but nowadays, every chief just works for their own tribe. %%

E2 – Need

Tag

• big chase/fight sequence
  • Raya indirectly meets all members of the Team Talon
• An athletic man in full-black swings down from above
  • his kick sends Raya staggering almost off the edge
  • Raya fights for a bit, but loses Sisu into the water, or something
  • The man escapes with the satchel containing the Gem pieces. Raya saves Sisu. “You can sense the Gems! Guide me!”
• Ongi monkeys take the satchel bag, split off
  • A man in hobo clothes appears to be in command of the monkeys.
  • The three ongi monkeys split up with decoys.
  • They keep switcheroo-ing between themselves
  • But Sisu guides Raya to pursue the correct one
• Raya gets back the satchel. But she bumps into someone
  • That “someone” keeps walking. Smirks. He’s swiped the satchel from Raya, replacing with a bag of fruits. A nearby vendor wrongly accuses Raya of theft.
• a Talon palace guard tries to apprehend Raya
  • “You don’t look like you’re Talon! Halt, I need to identify you!”
  • Raya steals and wears a traditional mask
  • The guard seems to focus solely on her, and literally ignores the others
• a boat merchant urgently moves her boat away, conveniently leaving a gap between the boats
  • this allows the current runner to escape, and Raya’s terrified of risking falling into the water. She loses meaningful ground
• Raya eventually gets back the satchel
• A Masked Man in a traditional mask engages Raya in hand-to-hand
  • the rest of the aforementioned individuals suddenly appear and gang up on Raya

Chase Climax

• Raya puts up a good fight, but she’s getting overwhelmed against so many, backed up against the edge
  • They’re causing a commotion, Talon citizens watch intently
• The Masked Man looks panicked behind Raya: palace guards are arriving
  • Raya, desperate, reaches for the whip-sword
  • The Masked Man sees this. He exclaims, “Everyone, stop!”
  • Everyone… freezes?
  • Man to Raya: “It’s me!”
• They both peek under their masks—
  • Raya: “Uncle Ngyet?”
  • Ngyet instructs to the combatants, “Scatter. Regroup at Rambutan Hut at midnight.”
  • Everyone scatters, just before palace guards arrive on the messy scene of overturned carts and broken boardwalks.
• Ngyet leads Raya out.

Answering the Call

• At the fringes of the floating city, Ngyet readies a sampan boat.
  • Raya: “Must we get on a boat?”
  • Ngyet calls back, “Hey, you were the one who wanted privacy.”
• Out of earshot, Sisu talks with Raya.
  • “What was all that? Even more crazy — I thought you were a lone tiger! You have a friend?!”
  • “I have an accomplice. Sisu, stay hidden, okay?”
• Ngyet rows Raya out to sea on a sampan boat
• Ngyet unrolls a pack: “Coconut kuih.”
  • Raya savours a bite, then closes it: “I’ve actually had pretty good food before arriving. I’ll save this for later, thank you.”
  • Ngyet raises eyebrows in pleasant surprise. “You’re usually so hungry!”
  • “I’ll soon have an appetite, after getting chased by the Cockerel Crew!”
  • Ngyet: “Eheh, sorry, didn’t recognise you… the mask… we thought you were the Fang spy…”
  • Raya jokes, “I was winning! You’re getting slower, old man. You’d be dead, if it weren’t for your crew!”
  • “True. They were smoking your pinggung.”
  • “I didn’t know you had so many members!”
  • Ngyet shrugs. “You could’ve asked at any time.”
  • “Yeah, but I would have to join your crew first, right?”
  • “And these new guys haven’t met you yet.”
    • the crew must be longtime, for Ngyet to trust them… but this story would’ve been a cool character moment for Ngyet
    • “A new crew, again?”
• Ngyet: “You have your father’s stubborn heart… and my sister’s perceptive eyes.”
  • Raya softens.
  • Ngyet, “You’re my only real family left, Raya. The Shattering has left us all orphans and widows. Your visits have been my only glimmers of joy — Raya.”
  • “Uncle Ngyet, you have Talon blood. You’ve still got your tribe — your people!”
  • Ngyet divides the coconut kuih.
  • “My people keep fracturing into gangs, factions. I try to band us all together, but Chief Dang Hai keeps turning the gangs against each other, for his own profit. He’s less a governor, and more of a glorified gangster.”
• Raya: “Takes one to know one.” “The songbird knows the tune of its own kind.”
  • Ngyet smirks: “It’s my business to know people. Important people, like you.”
  • Ngyet softens, “So that, maybe, I can assist the right people instead of the wrong ones.”
• “You’re almost convincing me to work together with you, Uncle Ngyet.”
  • Ngyet, inquisitive, “Really? Why now?”
  • Raya hides a poker face.
  • Ngyet reads it. “The Fang spy… is here… because of you. What did you do, Raya?”
  • Sisu nudges Raya forward.
• Raya deliberates. “I’m collecting the Gem pieces from every tribe. I need to steal Talon’s from Chief Dang Hai.”
  • Ngyet, “Since you’ve already told me your crazy secret mission, you assume that I will help you.”
  • “The dragons are real, and Sisu will restore everyone who was turned into stone!”
  • “Dragons are legend. Besides, Tail’s gem piece has been lost for years—”
  • Raya brandishes Tail’s gem-embedded kujang. Ngyet is dumbfounded.
  • Raya, “Sisu guided me to a lost Tail temple. There, we were ambushed by Fang.”
  • pause.
  • “Hmmm. Never liked Chief Dang Hai.” Smirks. “Are you ready to meet the team?”

So yeah. Raya’s mother is from Talon. Ngyet is Raya’s actual uncle.

Archived

• “we should have a secret-word.”
  • Raya raises the coconut kuih, “Coconut?”
  • Ngyet grins warmly!
• “What happened to Ferocious Phu and his cousins?” (Ngyet needs to convince Raya, this goes against it)
  • “We were on a mission to retrieve the governor’s pearls, stolen by the Tilapia gang. Phu deserted the crew on Tilapia’s ship, and ran off with the pearls for themselves.”
  • “But, long ago, Phu had entrusted me with his secret base. I struck a new deal with the Tilapia gang. Together, we raided the base, and reclaimed half our pearls back!
  • Raya: “Your pearls? Or the governor’s pearls?”
  • “Surely you’d be the last person to care about what belongs to who! Besides, Chief Dang Hai is less of a generous governor, and more of a…. glorified gangster.”
• “So how can you trust this new crew, this time?”
  • Either:
    • “I’ve known some of ‘em from a while back. Others vouch for them. You can’t let one rotten fruit burn the whole tree.”
    • “I’m still figuring that out, Raya.”
    • “Can’t let one rotten fruit burn the whole tree. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met you!”
    • “I can do so much more working together, than always backstabbing. Even after I’m betrayed by one bad apple.”
  • “You’ve seen all I’ve done with my crews! One rotten fruit doesn’t mean you chop the whole tree. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met you!”
• Maybe we postpone this spy info to the pinch
  • “I read your note.”
  • Ngyet: “A few days ago, there was a commotion in the palace. I thought the Fang spy had stolen the Talon Karambits. I instructed the crew to only swipe the bags of possible suspects. Your secret’s safe.”
  • Raya: ??? “How am I going to get Talon’s Karambits? I can’t even keep my current gem artefacts safe from your guys.”
  • You need a team!
  • Raya: You know I work alone.
  • but that full-black guy was pretty good though
  • “who?”
  • the guy in full black, that wasn’t one of yours?
  • Raya, I think that’s the Fang spy. I heard the spy is from Namaari’s elite squad.
• “Why the change of heart? You are so stubborn, like your father.”
  • “I’ll never find a heart like yours in all of Talon. So stubborn, like your father.”
• I’m injured. I can’t swim. I’m recognisable. There’s a Fang spy. I hate it here.
  • “Raya, you’re still injured. You’re on weak territory. You’ll get recognised. There’s a Fang spy.”

E3 – Search

Meet Team Talon

• This is the team.
  • Ngyet, recruiter
  • Noi, princess
  • Muong, monkey charmer
  • Vien, palace guard
  • Ding, pickpocket
  • Lam, ??? Fang spy fodder?
  • Peng, boat transport

Plan

• Ngyet: I think that XXXX is the Fang spy.

E4 – Adapt

Fang Khaan pinch

• Namaari pinch?

Getting to Karambits

Disaster

Next

Meet Noi, Nan and Ner

• three Talon locals
  • we find out later that one of them is definitely a Fang spy
  • all three are frauds in some way, though
  • who’s the spy?
• Noi pretends to be the chieftan’s daughter
  • only during Mask Festival can Noi go around anonymously
  • Noi helps to get Raya to the palace
  • “Dang Hai only has sons…”

Getting to Dang Hai

Disaster

• Midpoint: realising there’s a Fang spy
  • only one of the gang knew about the plan

Namaari in Heart

False Victory with The Gem

• reveal Nan is Noi’s parent figure

The Trap

Sacrifice

• one of them sells Raya out to the local Talon authorities
• Raya looks back; there isn’t much time. The Druun approach.
  • “I am Raya, daughter of Chief Benja of the tribe of Heart. The land of Kumandra fell apart because I made a mistake. Sisudatu is the Last Dragon. If you re-assemble the Gem shards from each tribe, she will revive everyone who was turned to stone. Don’t trust anyone. Or do. I don’t know, I just know that I trust you. I have to.”
  • (that’s a banger voiceover snippet for a trailer)
  • She throws over the satchel containing the Gem weapons.
  • She looks away. “I’m sorry bá, I couldn’t do it.”
• Noi takes Raya’s place
  • “Noi, she’s just another liar!”
  • “No! For the first time in my life, I know I’m getting the truth.”
  • Noi exchanges places with Raya: she gets petrified.
    • (this hits harder when [spoilers] Raya reveals she never planned to unpetrify the other tribes)

Resolution

• The Steamboat sails off
• Raya files through the satchel
  • She double-takes. Ruffles it again. Turns its contents out.
  • The Kujang. The Karambit.
  • Heart’s Whip-Keris is missing.
• Raya freaks out. Wails. Angry.