Black Hat Brigade: Episode 30
Mar. 8th, 2016 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastEstablishing shot: Camera pans along a road through a desert. Camera slows as it passes road equipment, to read the corporate branding of "Good Intentions Paving Company". Camera continues to a rundown diner. Outside, an employee seems to be frying eggs on the pavement.
The first vehicle in the parking lot is a tow truck. The side of the tow truck reads "Satanic Mechanic". The next vehicle is a state trooper police car, with a vanity licence plate reading "DeVille". The final is a black Lexus.
Four people sit at a booth.
Lucifer Morningstar is a tall, handsome man with stubble as the only mar of an otherwise very clean look. He wears a black suit-jacket over a black formal shirt, open at the collar.
Lucifer Morningstar: It's not that this isn't an... interesting local with... color to it.
Lucifer glances over to the counter, where a waitress talks and laughs and continues to almost pour coffee for a man, with grey pallor, who seems silent and polite, but otherwise desperate for her to pour the coffee.
Lucifer: But, could we not have met at a better local? I know absolutely all of the best restaurants in LA.
George Burns wears a red suit jacket and red bow-tie over a white shirt and white slacks. His glasses are tinted in a style indicative of a tacky talent agent.
George Burns: I like a place that lets me smoke. *grins a wide grin over his cigar*
Lucifer maintains a polite, if strained smile: Ah, yes... cigars.
Officer DeVille is a stout man with white hair and close trimmed white beard, in a state trooper uniform.: Yeah, that's part of what we want to talk to you about.
Beezle is a man with black hair and a thick, black mustache. He wears overalls that read Satanic Mechanic.: Your distaste for things like this... and hip-hop? Why would you be so against hip-hop?
Lucifer: Really? My taste in music is the matter of discussion? I could have this conversation at my own night-club. I would play you some real music.
George Burns: Hip-hop is real music. The way some people wear their pants isn't any better or worse than anybody else's.
Beezle: Considering the age you're supposed to have in your cannon, you should be more likely to have a problem with people wearing pants at all, let alone how far up or down on one's body is the belt.
Lucifer: But, have you seen those pants? Have you heard the hip-hop?
Officer DeVille: Have you ever listened to yourself? Do you know how conventional you are?
Lucifer: Conventional? I'm the devil. I may be many things, glib, charming, a hedonist but, never-
Beezle: All those things are conventional for a devil.
Lucifer pauses, but maintains his smile: Okay, I'm the good guy.
George Burns: A bit, but it's a start. It's why we have some hope for you. We want you to be more than one-part cliche one-part Castle ripoff.
Lucifer: I beg your pardon.
Officer DeVille: You won't get it from us. But, you do have a chance to do something we couldn't do.
Beezle: You could present something challenging to the common ideology, something that wouldn't paint us as either absolute evil or children rebelling without cause.
George Burns: You have the chance to be good.
Lucifer: I'm already doing that, I'm the good guy. So no need to worry.
George Burns: And for God to be evil.
Lucifer: You know, canonically, I am not going to speak well of dad at all. But, that is a far stretch.
Officer DeVille: No it isn't. Even biblically, it's not a far stretch. Gnostics Christians found that much obvious.
Lucifer: That was never mainstream Christianity.
Beezle: You mean conventional Christianity? I thought you were never conventional.
Lucifer: You think I can sell people on the notion that God, who has, with the exception of some Gnostics, always been identified as the morally perfect-
George Burns: Who ever said that was always the case?
Lucifer: Well... everybody.
George Burns: Please, the Old Testament, that's not just the Jewish scriptures but the Jewish scriptures that survived the council of Nicea's editing to make it into the Christian bible, includes God correcting his law when a flaw was detected. It includes Lot and Abraham and Moses all haggling with God in order to hold back wrath for the sake of mercy or justice.
George Burns: Legitimate relationships with God involve challenging him and calling him out for evil acts. They're not all reduced to Job accepting his place regardless of everything else.
Beezle: We don't really want much. Even God as absolute evil isn't necessary.
Officer DeVille: We just want an understanding of morality that is distinct from and more real than just being super-obedient to God.
Lucifer: And, you think I can do that?
Officer DeVille: Your canon already started. I think it tried to lay the groundwork for you changing. But, when your therapist told you that you were given your position in Hell as an act of love...
Lucifer takes a breath to keep calm, but loses his smile: Yes, I remember that.
Officer DeVille: How else would a therapist categorize that kind of behavior?
George Burns: How would a trained and educated psychologist look at that?
Beezle: How would they see that if they didn't assume the person was morally perfect?
Lucifer: I'm... not getting it?
George Burns: Abuse, that would be abusive parenting.
Beezle: "I am the Alpha and Omega" would be classic clinical narcissism.
Officer DeVille: And, that leads to a predictable pattern of abuse one with idealized golden children that get all the positive attention and goats that get all of the blame.
Lucifer: So, you want me to convince a still predominantly Christian target audience that God is abusive and flawed and that Christianity is a lie?
George Burns: Who's even going that far? Even the bible can accept, at times, a morally imperfect God. He doesn't have to be absolute evil, just flawed like any other character, even otherwise good. It would be a case of the story of God being a classic man-versus-self conflict that needs resolution.
Beezle: If an imperfectly good God could reconcile himself with an overly-maligned devil, even that would be enough for us satans to have a more complex understanding and story, one where we can have compassion and not just hatred sometimes mixed with a touch of pity.
The first vehicle in the parking lot is a tow truck. The side of the tow truck reads "Satanic Mechanic". The next vehicle is a state trooper police car, with a vanity licence plate reading "DeVille". The final is a black Lexus.
Four people sit at a booth.
Lucifer Morningstar is a tall, handsome man with stubble as the only mar of an otherwise very clean look. He wears a black suit-jacket over a black formal shirt, open at the collar.
Lucifer Morningstar: It's not that this isn't an... interesting local with... color to it.
Lucifer glances over to the counter, where a waitress talks and laughs and continues to almost pour coffee for a man, with grey pallor, who seems silent and polite, but otherwise desperate for her to pour the coffee.
Lucifer: But, could we not have met at a better local? I know absolutely all of the best restaurants in LA.
George Burns wears a red suit jacket and red bow-tie over a white shirt and white slacks. His glasses are tinted in a style indicative of a tacky talent agent.
George Burns: I like a place that lets me smoke. *grins a wide grin over his cigar*
Lucifer maintains a polite, if strained smile: Ah, yes... cigars.
Officer DeVille is a stout man with white hair and close trimmed white beard, in a state trooper uniform.: Yeah, that's part of what we want to talk to you about.
Beezle is a man with black hair and a thick, black mustache. He wears overalls that read Satanic Mechanic.: Your distaste for things like this... and hip-hop? Why would you be so against hip-hop?
Lucifer: Really? My taste in music is the matter of discussion? I could have this conversation at my own night-club. I would play you some real music.
George Burns: Hip-hop is real music. The way some people wear their pants isn't any better or worse than anybody else's.
Beezle: Considering the age you're supposed to have in your cannon, you should be more likely to have a problem with people wearing pants at all, let alone how far up or down on one's body is the belt.
Lucifer: But, have you seen those pants? Have you heard the hip-hop?
Officer DeVille: Have you ever listened to yourself? Do you know how conventional you are?
Lucifer: Conventional? I'm the devil. I may be many things, glib, charming, a hedonist but, never-
Beezle: All those things are conventional for a devil.
Lucifer pauses, but maintains his smile: Okay, I'm the good guy.
George Burns: A bit, but it's a start. It's why we have some hope for you. We want you to be more than one-part cliche one-part Castle ripoff.
Lucifer: I beg your pardon.
Officer DeVille: You won't get it from us. But, you do have a chance to do something we couldn't do.
Beezle: You could present something challenging to the common ideology, something that wouldn't paint us as either absolute evil or children rebelling without cause.
George Burns: You have the chance to be good.
Lucifer: I'm already doing that, I'm the good guy. So no need to worry.
George Burns: And for God to be evil.
Lucifer: You know, canonically, I am not going to speak well of dad at all. But, that is a far stretch.
Officer DeVille: No it isn't. Even biblically, it's not a far stretch. Gnostics Christians found that much obvious.
Lucifer: That was never mainstream Christianity.
Beezle: You mean conventional Christianity? I thought you were never conventional.
Lucifer: You think I can sell people on the notion that God, who has, with the exception of some Gnostics, always been identified as the morally perfect-
George Burns: Who ever said that was always the case?
Lucifer: Well... everybody.
George Burns: Please, the Old Testament, that's not just the Jewish scriptures but the Jewish scriptures that survived the council of Nicea's editing to make it into the Christian bible, includes God correcting his law when a flaw was detected. It includes Lot and Abraham and Moses all haggling with God in order to hold back wrath for the sake of mercy or justice.
George Burns: Legitimate relationships with God involve challenging him and calling him out for evil acts. They're not all reduced to Job accepting his place regardless of everything else.
Beezle: We don't really want much. Even God as absolute evil isn't necessary.
Officer DeVille: We just want an understanding of morality that is distinct from and more real than just being super-obedient to God.
Lucifer: And, you think I can do that?
Officer DeVille: Your canon already started. I think it tried to lay the groundwork for you changing. But, when your therapist told you that you were given your position in Hell as an act of love...
Lucifer takes a breath to keep calm, but loses his smile: Yes, I remember that.
Officer DeVille: How else would a therapist categorize that kind of behavior?
George Burns: How would a trained and educated psychologist look at that?
Beezle: How would they see that if they didn't assume the person was morally perfect?
Lucifer: I'm... not getting it?
George Burns: Abuse, that would be abusive parenting.
Beezle: "I am the Alpha and Omega" would be classic clinical narcissism.
Officer DeVille: And, that leads to a predictable pattern of abuse one with idealized golden children that get all the positive attention and goats that get all of the blame.
Lucifer: So, you want me to convince a still predominantly Christian target audience that God is abusive and flawed and that Christianity is a lie?
George Burns: Who's even going that far? Even the bible can accept, at times, a morally imperfect God. He doesn't have to be absolute evil, just flawed like any other character, even otherwise good. It would be a case of the story of God being a classic man-versus-self conflict that needs resolution.
Beezle: If an imperfectly good God could reconcile himself with an overly-maligned devil, even that would be enough for us satans to have a more complex understanding and story, one where we can have compassion and not just hatred sometimes mixed with a touch of pity.
