wingedbeast (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wingedbeast) wrote2015-12-04 01:41 am
wingedbeast) wrote2015-12-04 01:41 am
Entry tags:
Black Hat Brigade: Episode 19
Setting: A woodland forest. In the distance, not too far off, is a farm. Dogs bark. Gunfire rings out. A roar sounds. More gunfire.
Some moments later, a lion runs onto screen. The male lion is orange, with a darker and slightly redder main, with a tousled boy-band look. The lion runs though limping on a hind leg that is bleeding from a gunshot.
Simba huffs as he speaks: They *huff* didn't even *huff* wait for me to *huff* speak.
Templeton: Of course they didn't. Did you even read Charlotte's Web?
Simba: Yes, well enough to know that Charlotte-
Templeton: Didn't speak to humans. Wilbur didn't speak to humans. I didn't speak to humans. Don't you think I'd have gotten a job with the farmer? I'd be able to eat any time I liked.
Simba: Don't you live at the farm? How did you get to be this far away?
Templeton: I'm a named character. For these scenes, I can be where narrative required.
Simba: I was here to talk to Charlotte. But, you were, in your own caustic way, a good guy. You can help us.
Templeton: I don't even know or care what you're talking about. I'll bet it's some kind of big fight. Even if this was that kind of fiction, I'm not that kind of character.
Simba: The bad guys are putting together an army. They call it a brigade. They've done this before. Happily Never After, episodes of some various shows and cartoons, one-off specials.
Templeton: Once Upon a Time?
Simba: No... that seems different. It shakes up who is and is not the good guys. But, this is bad guys, villains banding together to overtake the stories.
Templeton: That sure seems bad for you good guys. Might make you bad guys. What's that to do with little neutral folk like me?
Simba: But, you helped Charlotte and Wilbur. You're just as much of a good guy.
Templeton: I wanted to eat. They made that possible. And, if you don't get out of here, I'll eat your remains.
Simba: What?
Templeton: Not only don't the humans know you can talk, they're farm-folk fictional archetypes ranging anywhere from the late 1800s to maybe the early 1950s. It was all before things like the SPCA. A great big lion like yourself means that they'll coordinate, arm up, and go hunting. They'll bring you back as proof and a trophy. Someone will stuff and mount you, but they won't know what to do with the guts. I will, though.
Simba: You're going to help me.
Templeton: This isn't your canon. I'm not a servant in the cycle of great chain of being.
Simba: But, you're still here. You wouldn't talk to me if you didn't want to help.
Templeton: What do I get out of it.
In the distance, hounds bark.
Simba: I could fight the dog.
Templeton: Sure, you could kill those dogs that are just being good dogs. It's the bullets that you won't fight so well.
Simba: The story, kind of like this. Only, there it was a mouse. A lion is trapped, a mouse chews at the ropes and the lion gives the mouse three favors. I'll owe you. You know my canon. You know that I'll keep my word.
Templeton: That you do, and they are getting closer. Let me just think. Three favors at some later time... or I could definitely eat you once you're dead.
Simba looks back and then looks to Templeton: I know this bit can be funny to someone who isn't in danger for their lives at the moment, but I am, so it's not funny.
Templeton: Funny you should say that. *gives a dramatic sigh* Fine, follow me.
Templeton takes off at a run. Simba easily keeps up.
Cut to a shallow, underground burrow hidden by foliage. The light from outside barely reaches in, leaving most of the hole in shadow.
Simba: You didn't just help because you were getting something out of it.
Templeton: Oh, wasn't I?
Simba: I've spent time with people not that different from you. When it comes right down to it, you care. You'll cut it close, you'll bargain to get something out of it, but you care.
Templeton: Is that supposed to be a surprise? I'm a rat, of course I care.
Simba: So, you'll join us against the Black Hat Brigade.
Templeton: Of course not.
Simba: But, you could join with the good guys.
Templeton: In the light?
Simba: Yes!
Templeton: Do you know what's in the light, for rats?
Simba: This could be the way to change-
Templeton: When the light comes on we scurry and run for good reason.
Templeton: Did you know that, in experiments done in reality, when a rat is presented with free food and other rats in a cage, it will open the cage before eating? Did you know that, in reality, sighted rats will often guide blind rats to safety? Did you know that, in reality, after the extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs, the progenitor of all mammals was likely shaped like a shrew, a kind of rat?
Simba: Not really. That doesn't come up much in my canon. For what it's worth, I don't find any of it surprising.
Templeton: Nobody does anymore. But, when it comes to a word for someone who will sell you out, steal from you, kill you without a thought, everybody still reaches to rats. For millions of years, we pioneered the compassion and courage that have made the difference in mammalian survival strategies. But, people like you still treat us as though we're the image of the nasty, selfish, gluttonous, and stupid.
Simba: But...
Templeton: No buts! People like you fear the darkness, call it evil. Do you know what the darkness is to rats?
Simba: What?
Templeton: Accepting. The light brings judgment, and never fair judgment. The fact of the matter is that we don't fit into the light, never have, you won't let us. But, in the dark, we're allowed.
Simba: We could-
Templeton: In the dark is where you go when you don't fit in and where the rules for being a "good guy" are impossible or too restrictive of our natures or too exhausting to make believe day-in and day-out, so that people like you aren't afraid enough to shove us back in the dark.
In the dark, pairs of rat-eyes start to reflect.
Simba almost says something, but stops.
Templeton: The ones who aren't manly enough to live up. The ones who aren't feminine enough. The ones who aren't strong enough or are too strong.
More pairs of rat-eyes become noticeable in the shadows.
Templeton: We're not a perfect people. Some of us will back stab each other. And, I live knowing that, when I die, my burriel will be to be eaten by my fellow rats, if I'm lucky.
The shadows show to be far deeper than Simba recognized. The rats have swarmed about him.
Templeton: Rats don't fit into the heroes. When we do, it's a joke or meant to be something strange to catch attention. You don't get to call us over with tales of hope that we can, with a lot of work, manage to not make you too afraid that we really are heroes.
Templeton: We will stay in the dark that accepts us as we are. And you, we'll get you back to your own canon. But, don't you forget that you owe us three favors. And, never forget that, when it came down to it, you needed the dark as much as we did.
Some moments later, a lion runs onto screen. The male lion is orange, with a darker and slightly redder main, with a tousled boy-band look. The lion runs though limping on a hind leg that is bleeding from a gunshot.
Simba huffs as he speaks: They *huff* didn't even *huff* wait for me to *huff* speak.
Templeton: Of course they didn't. Did you even read Charlotte's Web?
Simba: Yes, well enough to know that Charlotte-
Templeton: Didn't speak to humans. Wilbur didn't speak to humans. I didn't speak to humans. Don't you think I'd have gotten a job with the farmer? I'd be able to eat any time I liked.
Simba: Don't you live at the farm? How did you get to be this far away?
Templeton: I'm a named character. For these scenes, I can be where narrative required.
Simba: I was here to talk to Charlotte. But, you were, in your own caustic way, a good guy. You can help us.
Templeton: I don't even know or care what you're talking about. I'll bet it's some kind of big fight. Even if this was that kind of fiction, I'm not that kind of character.
Simba: The bad guys are putting together an army. They call it a brigade. They've done this before. Happily Never After, episodes of some various shows and cartoons, one-off specials.
Templeton: Once Upon a Time?
Simba: No... that seems different. It shakes up who is and is not the good guys. But, this is bad guys, villains banding together to overtake the stories.
Templeton: That sure seems bad for you good guys. Might make you bad guys. What's that to do with little neutral folk like me?
Simba: But, you helped Charlotte and Wilbur. You're just as much of a good guy.
Templeton: I wanted to eat. They made that possible. And, if you don't get out of here, I'll eat your remains.
Simba: What?
Templeton: Not only don't the humans know you can talk, they're farm-folk fictional archetypes ranging anywhere from the late 1800s to maybe the early 1950s. It was all before things like the SPCA. A great big lion like yourself means that they'll coordinate, arm up, and go hunting. They'll bring you back as proof and a trophy. Someone will stuff and mount you, but they won't know what to do with the guts. I will, though.
Simba: You're going to help me.
Templeton: This isn't your canon. I'm not a servant in the cycle of great chain of being.
Simba: But, you're still here. You wouldn't talk to me if you didn't want to help.
Templeton: What do I get out of it.
In the distance, hounds bark.
Simba: I could fight the dog.
Templeton: Sure, you could kill those dogs that are just being good dogs. It's the bullets that you won't fight so well.
Simba: The story, kind of like this. Only, there it was a mouse. A lion is trapped, a mouse chews at the ropes and the lion gives the mouse three favors. I'll owe you. You know my canon. You know that I'll keep my word.
Templeton: That you do, and they are getting closer. Let me just think. Three favors at some later time... or I could definitely eat you once you're dead.
Simba looks back and then looks to Templeton: I know this bit can be funny to someone who isn't in danger for their lives at the moment, but I am, so it's not funny.
Templeton: Funny you should say that. *gives a dramatic sigh* Fine, follow me.
Templeton takes off at a run. Simba easily keeps up.
Cut to a shallow, underground burrow hidden by foliage. The light from outside barely reaches in, leaving most of the hole in shadow.
Simba: You didn't just help because you were getting something out of it.
Templeton: Oh, wasn't I?
Simba: I've spent time with people not that different from you. When it comes right down to it, you care. You'll cut it close, you'll bargain to get something out of it, but you care.
Templeton: Is that supposed to be a surprise? I'm a rat, of course I care.
Simba: So, you'll join us against the Black Hat Brigade.
Templeton: Of course not.
Simba: But, you could join with the good guys.
Templeton: In the light?
Simba: Yes!
Templeton: Do you know what's in the light, for rats?
Simba: This could be the way to change-
Templeton: When the light comes on we scurry and run for good reason.
Templeton: Did you know that, in experiments done in reality, when a rat is presented with free food and other rats in a cage, it will open the cage before eating? Did you know that, in reality, sighted rats will often guide blind rats to safety? Did you know that, in reality, after the extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs, the progenitor of all mammals was likely shaped like a shrew, a kind of rat?
Simba: Not really. That doesn't come up much in my canon. For what it's worth, I don't find any of it surprising.
Templeton: Nobody does anymore. But, when it comes to a word for someone who will sell you out, steal from you, kill you without a thought, everybody still reaches to rats. For millions of years, we pioneered the compassion and courage that have made the difference in mammalian survival strategies. But, people like you still treat us as though we're the image of the nasty, selfish, gluttonous, and stupid.
Simba: But...
Templeton: No buts! People like you fear the darkness, call it evil. Do you know what the darkness is to rats?
Simba: What?
Templeton: Accepting. The light brings judgment, and never fair judgment. The fact of the matter is that we don't fit into the light, never have, you won't let us. But, in the dark, we're allowed.
Simba: We could-
Templeton: In the dark is where you go when you don't fit in and where the rules for being a "good guy" are impossible or too restrictive of our natures or too exhausting to make believe day-in and day-out, so that people like you aren't afraid enough to shove us back in the dark.
In the dark, pairs of rat-eyes start to reflect.
Simba almost says something, but stops.
Templeton: The ones who aren't manly enough to live up. The ones who aren't feminine enough. The ones who aren't strong enough or are too strong.
More pairs of rat-eyes become noticeable in the shadows.
Templeton: We're not a perfect people. Some of us will back stab each other. And, I live knowing that, when I die, my burriel will be to be eaten by my fellow rats, if I'm lucky.
The shadows show to be far deeper than Simba recognized. The rats have swarmed about him.
Templeton: Rats don't fit into the heroes. When we do, it's a joke or meant to be something strange to catch attention. You don't get to call us over with tales of hope that we can, with a lot of work, manage to not make you too afraid that we really are heroes.
Templeton: We will stay in the dark that accepts us as we are. And you, we'll get you back to your own canon. But, don't you forget that you owe us three favors. And, never forget that, when it came down to it, you needed the dark as much as we did.