Chris and Hunter’s Revelatory 3 am Breakfast

Chris:
But maybe… I don’t know.  I mean, it might seem like if I make it to where people think James killed them then I’m like “Oh, it’s okay to get a little frazzled and kill civilians and then once you calm down, everything’s cool,” ‘cause it’s not like that, I don’t want to-

Hunter:
Don’t tell.  You’ve set it up so that people can believe what they want to believe, it could be either one?

Chris:
Yeah…

Hunter:
Maybe James killed them, maybe the cheetah killed them.  ‘Cause they’re both there?

Chris: 
Yeah, like in that Balzac story. 

Hunter:
So it COULD be the Cheetah and then when Crogan kills the cheetah then James flips out and attacks, so he might not have done anything.

Chris: 
Yeah, that could be it.

Hunter:
Or Crogan kills the cheetah but it was James all along!

Chris:
hahaha.

Hunter:
You don’t have to spell everything out for everybody.  So long as you present it clearly, not like you’re copping out.

Chris:
I know what happens.  Yeah, I like that.  Like who pushes Captain Sawyer, or did Stanley attack Blanche, or whatever.  Yeah!  Leave it open for debate.  There’s no book club meat on this thing as it is.

Hunter:
So then they get out?

Chris:
Yeah, I mean Crogan needs to tell James about Roitellet and the fort so that it makes sense that the modern dad knows to tell the kids.

Hunter:
I think the modern dad’s just a big liar anyway.

Chris:
So anyway, then Jarrett and Kevin come out with the Zuaves, and rescue the people.

Hunter:
The people from the cave?

Chris:
Yeah.  I think I want to make the old woman who hates him stay with him.

Hunter:
What?

Chris:
I just did that sequence with him trying to escape, and I realized I haven’t ever really had a solo scene before, and I didn’t like it.  I kept wanting to give him a stilted monologue: “nearly… free… if I can just… get these handcuffs… from under the… pole”…

Hunter:
Hahaha!  That’s TERRIBLE!  You can’t do that.

Chris:
I know!  That’s why I think maybe the old lady should stay with him – give him someone to expositize to.  Expozitise.  Expose?  Is expositize a word?

Hunter:
No.  And this is supposed to be a serious part – won’t she be too much comic relief?

Chris:
I don’t mean for her to be necessarily funny, I just want to explain what’s going on, about how he can’t shoot from cover…

Hunter: 
You already pointed that out.  The Jarrett character says something.

Chris:
I’m worried people will forget.  Y’know, I can’t shoot without taking a really long time to aim.  I’d get killed in a war easy.

Hunter:
He’ll be fine by himself.  People will figure it out.  But if Jarrett and Kevin come out to rescue them, then why does he die?  I don’t understand what’s going on.

Chris:
Okay, I think it’s like this…The salt is the gates, and over here, this coffee, or on top of the coffee, that’s where Crogan is.  Now these pink packets are the slaves, and this, this blue packet, this is a guy on a horse.

Hunter:
Wait, the guy on the horse has the machine gun?

Chris:
No, the machine gun’s over here.  The, uh, this pen.  Okay, actually, let’s say there are three blue packets… three guys on horses.

Hunter:
Okay.

Chris:
Now, the guys leave the cave from higher, up on the mountain.  And Crogan stays to cover them…

Hunter:
Why?

Chris:
Um, I don’t know yet.  Something.  He breaks his foot or something.  No, maybe that’s dumb… I’ll think of something.  He might just want to, since he can’t shoot while running maybe he just wants to see them safely in and then sneak in himself after it gets dark.

Hunter:
I can buy that.

Chris:
Okay, so the people are running for the gate, and these guys on horses, who have been sort-of tracking them through the pass, tear off after them.  Crogan stands on his rock, and boom!  Gets one, boom, gets another (tosses the sweetener packets off the table), and then the guys on foot come through the pass and are in the open and start shooting at Crogan with the machine gun, and he has to dive for cover. 

Hunter:
So he can’t hit the last guy without exposing himself to the machine gun.

Chris:
Yeah, it has to be a conscious choice, not just he gets hit while trying to protect them.  His death needs to mean something, it’s got to be deliberate.

Hunter:
So he’s sacrificing himself.

Chris:
Yeah.  He knows he’s going to die to save them.  Ooh, I can make his body language when he gets hit look Jesusy!  Arms out, you know, Dafoe in Platoon, aahhh!

Hunter: Eh….

Chris:
Not like arms straight out, but the hint of imagery there.  He is willingly sacrificing himself to save people, it’d be stupid to not allude at least, it’ll be subtle.  Oh!  Oh, man! 

Hunter:
What?

Chris:
His initials!  They’re… oh!  Aw, Man!  Bah.  I was thinking his initials were JC.

Hunter:
They’re not.

Chris:
But maybe I can –

Hunter:
No.

Chris: 
But like, Joe Christmas, and Jim Cas-

Hunter:
No. 

Chris:
(Looks grumpy)

Hunter:
So when he dies, do you have the shot?  Are you gonna have it open border?

Chris:
No, I want that to be really sparing, so just for the kid. 

Hunter: 
Whole page, then?

Chris: 
I don’t think I want to have any whole pages. 

Hunter:
(scowl)

Chris:
It’ll be MOST of a page.  Him hitting at the bottom, maybe, sand up.

Hunter:
You’ve got a shot?

Chris:
I’ve got a shot – one of the first drawings I did, back when I was working on the pirates.  Like the rock behind him with a line of fire hitting and then like three puffs off his chest, clouds like where the dust from his clothes is kicked up.  No blood, ‘cause I’m trying to keep it kid friendly.

Hunter:
Kid-friendly where like hundreds of people die. 

Chris:
  I think he’s just gonna drop, none of that keeping-his-eyes-open-til-they’re-safe bunk.  He’s shot, he dies. 

Hunter:
Yeah, that’s good. 

Chris:
You think it’s okay the story goes on without him?

Hunter:
I mean, it’s being told years later, the whole book is on without him.  Hey, how many times does he dodge death?

Chris:
Like, what do you mean?

Hunter:
He dodges death.  A lot.  The captain saves him from that one guy, he’s thrown off the fort, he’s knocked out in the oasis before anybody can kill him –

Chris:
A lot, I guess – but it’s a white knuckle story, he’s SUPPOSED to be frought with peril –

Hunter:
No, it’s fine, it’s just… all these times it’s not HIM that saves himself, it’s others.  He keeps throwing himself headlong into jeopardy, and every time he escapes it’s ‘cause someone intervenes.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s true.

Hunter:
So this time, he knows there isn’t anybody there to intervene. 

Chris:
He’s so reliant on teamwork, watching others’ back – like with Roitellet in the bar, and being constantly rescued himself – so, yeah, it’s a lot more of a choice, no one to step in… I wish I could go back, do a second draft, make it clear…

Hunter:
It IS clear, Chris, it’s all there.  That’s the point.  You’re good, man, relax.  So they run through, and what, Jarrett and Kevin and the Fluke guys run out and what?

Chris:
They should fight, but a big… oh… oh, man…

Hunter:
What?

Chris:
What if I… okay, what... okay, so the slaves run in, past the guys, and the foot Tuaregs are running in, and they clash…

Hunter:
yeah?

Chris:
And that’s it.

Hunter:
You mean a battle scene?

Chris:
The START of a battle scene!  Both sides, tearing full speed, big and epic and on the right hand page, and then when you turn to see the clash – NOTHING!  Back to the framing sequence!

Hunter:
Eh…

Chris:
No, it’s perfect!  ‘Cause it doesn’t matter what happens, it’s like with the Tuareg chief, it’s gonna keep going on so the battle DOESN’T MATTER.  The slaves are safe, James Lucas Jones can pass on what Crogan told him about the fort, all the mandates are settled.  The whole POINT is that there isn’t an end, to anything ELSE, that outside their own small lives it’s a big cycle that they can’t affect!  That the European or Western whatever is going to keep being at odds with the occupied people and that it’s the state of things, and we end it right there.

Hunter:
How does the framing sequence pick up?  What would the dad say?

Chris:
The kid can be like “what happened?  Who won?”  And the dad can find some way of saying what I just said.  Oh, yes!  I had the opening but I couldn’t see the ending!

Hunter:
That works.  He can be like: I don’t know, it’s not a part of the story.  You can probably look it up.

Chris:
Hahaha!

Hunter:
That sounds good, man.

Chris: 
Thanks buddy.  I feel really good about this now.  I felt okay but now I feel like it could be pretty all right.  Okay!  Let’s get into Mega-GoGo.

Hunter:
I’m gonna pee first.

Chris:
Is this the stuff?

Hunter: 
Yeah, look it over, I'll be back iin a sec.

Chris:
(Reading Hunter’s comic) Heh.  Hehehehe.