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ENTERTAINER (peeking from backstage): Songbird! Songbird!!

SONGBIRD looks at ENTERTAINER, then at ENLIGHTENED.

ENLIGHTENED: Your show is starting soon. You must get ready.
SONGBIRD (at a loss for words): ...Thank you.

SONGBIRD gives an uncharacteristically clumsy curtsy, then hurries backstage towards ENTERTAINER. Her mind races with unexpected emotions - admiration, exhaustion, confusion, trepidation, and soulmate-weary hysteria.

ENLIGHTENED: Songbird? Songbird!
SONGBIRD (in reverie): Huh?
ENTERTAINER: You’re up in two!
ENTERTAINER (snapping her fingers): Are you quite alright?

ENTERTAINER reaches for SONGBIRD’s face. SONGBIRD raises her hand defensively, and ENTERTAINER relents, saddened.

ENTERTAINER: You look like you haven’t slept at all.
SONGBIRD: I’ve gotten the sleep I need. And something else too. Something far greater.
ENTERTAINER: What are you talking about?
SONGBIRD: I’ve got the power of love.

A beat passes.

ENTERTAINER bursts into laughter. SONGBIRD, catching on to her own faux pas, affects laughter of her own.

ENTERTAINER: Whew, okay. Memorize that one for me too, pretty please?
SONGBIRD: It’s fairly stock irony.
ENTERTAINER: All in the delivery, then. I should work on my deadpan.
SONGBIRD: You have a deadpan?
ENTERTAINER: Come on, Songbird! You’ll kill it.

ENTERTAINER urges SONGBIRD towards the stage with a friendly hand on her shoulder. SONGBIRD affects one last smile and glance backwards before taking the stage.