Season of the Chosen ending cinematic

[ascendantcheese]

Name: Season of the Chosen ending cinematic
Video URL: Challenger’s Proving VII | Chariot of Fire | Season of the Chosen
Playlist URL: Chosen, Season of the (Story) from Destiny Lore Vault
Recorded: 2021.05.23

Transcript:

// NOTE This cinematic begins immediately after the Proving Grounds strike as part of the following quest:

// REFERENCE {item:Chariot of Fire}

++Watcher’s Grave, Nessus, Unstable Centaur

**Qalec, holding a sniper rifle, appears over a ledge overlooking the armistice meeting between Commander Zavala and Empress Caiatl.

**Caiatl and her guards stand to the left side of the area, with Zavala, his Ghost Targe, and Crow standing to the right. Valir, in the center, picks up a Cabal Severus sword from a container. He brings it to Caiatl who takes it and holds it up.

Caiatl: Let our blood be the last spilled.

**Caiatl wraps a hand around the sword and drags the sword up to cut her palm, letting the blood drip to the ground.

Caiatl: Let this ground be hallowed.

**Above, Qalec aims down the rifle’s sights.

Caiatl: Let honor bind us.

**Zavala nods in agreement. Valir approaches Zavala with the same sword. As they do, Qalec shoots down Targe with an anti-Light device. Targe is instantly disabled. Caiatl and her bodyguards look up to the sniper while Clow looks to Zavala. Zavala clutches his chest, Lightless.

Zavala: [gasps]

**Valir shouts and runs for Zavala with the knife but Crow intercepts the blow. Crow’s mask is shattered and he falls to the ground. Zavala looks from him to Valir who prepares to strike again. Caiatl catches him and slams him on the ground, killing him instantly. Zavala looks up at her.

Caiatl: I didn’t order this.

**Caiatl turns to her bodyguards, clenching her fist as she speaks.

Caiatl: Bring me the one who pulled the trigger! They’ll know who did!

**One of the Cabal leaves to do so. Qalec flees. Zavala looks down to Crow, who is turned away from him. Crow frees Targe from the device, restoring Zavala’s Light. Both Targe and Zavala turn to face him.

Zavala: [gasps] Are you all right?

**Crow pauses before shifting to sit on the ground, exposing his face to them.

Crow: I’m… alive.

Zavala is visibly stunned, pausing for a long moment before offering Crow a hand up. Crow appears surprised for a moment before taking it.

[nev]

@ascendantcheese

++Nessus

is it fair to draw the conclusion this takes place in watcher’s grave?

@ascendantcheese

**The camera shifts focus to the meeting, with Valir picking up a knife from a container

camerawork description is probably not needed here. if you want to describe this as occurring at the armistice rather than the ledge, that’s cool. maybe something like “Near Caiatl, Valir lifts a knife from a container.”
instead, noting Valir’s presence & location in the opening description, might eliminate the need to “cut back to” the meeting. might also help to note the two psions are psions in the intro, for political clarity’s sake since they’re otherwise minor characters who briefly appear in one dialogue.

@ascendantcheese

**Caiatl slides her palm around the knife

“Caiatl slides the knife across her palm” or maybe “Caiatl wraps a hand around the blade and draws it across her palm”?
also this appears to be a Cabal Severus, basically a sword, Caiatl’s just sort of big.

@ascendantcheese

intercepts him. In the blow,

this skips from “running toward zavala” to describing a blow as if it already happened. maybe “intercepts him and is struck. Crow’s mask etc etc etc”?

@ascendantcheese

Caiatl catches him and crushes him on the ground, killing him instantly.

More of a throw or a smash? No crushing happens. Are we sure he’s actually dead right this second?

@ascendantcheese

The cinematic ends.

think this is implied regardless

@ascendantcheese

//The cinematic begins immediately after the Proving Grounds strike as part of the following quest:

i think this needs a big NOTE in all caps

[nev]

a note for posterity, the names of these psions come from this later transcript

H.E.L.M. Transmissions: Third Message from Caiatl

Name: Vanguard Transmissions | Third Message from Caiatl Video URL: Vanguard Transmissions | Third Message from Caiatl | Season of the Chosen Playlist URL: Chosen, Season of the (Story) from Destiny Lore Vault Recorded: 2021.05.23 Transcript: ++The H.E.L.M., The Last City **The Guardian approaches a radio terminal and activates it. Caiatl: Warriors of the Empire. Caiatl: Today, we chose strength and honor over personal glory. Caiatl: But two of our soldiers chose to pursue their own vic…

[ascendantcheese]

Done, added in most of your suggestions.

@nev

is it fair to draw the conclusion this takes place in watcher’s grave?

Thanks for catching that! I wasn’t sure at all where it was.

@nev

this skips from “running toward zavala” to describing a blow as if it already happened. maybe “intercepts him and is struck. Crow’s mask etc etc etc”?

I went ahead and made it “Caiatl wraps a hand around the sword and drags the sword up to cut her palm” cause I wanted to make it clear that she doesn’t have her hand with her palm up and she’s moving the sword across it horizontally, she’s holding the sword vertically and then pulling up. How’s that sound?

@nev

this skips from “running toward zavala” to describing a blow as if it already happened. maybe “intercepts him and is struck. Crow’s mask etc etc etc”?

Yeah I’ll do that. There’s a flash that made me unsure how to describe how exactly Crow’s mask just kind of explodes (unless it’s meant to infer that his face took the sword hit? ouch).

@nev

Are we sure he’s actually dead right this second?

I assumed that cause the light in his eye goes out like a usual dead Psion plus Caiatl in thethird message says he “met his death with honor” so I’m guessing she means this Scion here unless there’s some mystery third Psion in play.