Girl+Dinosaur rewrite 4.D.2

Dino rewrite 4.D.2:

Foreword:

This story was born of a single line from a Harry Potter fanfiction story where the protagonist of a child’s book set off to find a dinosaur with the line “He picked up his pail, grabbed his shovel from the sandpile, and set off to find a dinosaur."

The line resonated with me for months before I finally sat down to write it over an eight hour period on the night that The Force Awakens premiered. Once it was done, as I was editing a few errors here and there—planning to set it aside for a few weeks before coming back to reedit with a fresher mind—I realized that the protagonist didn’t have to be a boy. In fact, it would be better if it was a girl.

And as I thought about that, I imagined Sammi Hanratty or Bella Thorne reading the story as a motion comic played out and then Imagined a version for each continent. Sammi Hanratty in North America. Lupita Nyong’o for an African localized one. Angelababy for an Asian one. And a few others.

And as that idea percolated, I imagined two more. Jane Douglas or Olivia Munn as a geekcentric version. And then the clincher which would require a few extra pages and a possibly significant rewrite, a transitioning transgender person throughout with Laverne Cox as the basis.

Other ideas for the series percolated as well, a webcomic version where Dino is seen as a stuffed animal by everyone even though he’s obviously alive(basically Calvin & Hobbes where they discuss paleontology instead of philosophy) and an adult novel where the Saurians are a dominant subterranean species on a planet colonized by humans. A small contingent of humans who thought the planet was already inhabited before the humans arrive find the saurians and try to help them frighten off the other colonists, igniting a guerilla war.

Pg 001

Pa 1

Little Meg stands on soapbox, brushing her teeth, a small radio with notes coming out, [maybe some Meg lyrics,] wearing a tee and a jeans and her hair in curly pigtails. Her stuffed animals (a triceratops and smilodon) are sitting on the counter, watching her.

Dad's voice, offscreen: 'are you done, Meg?'

Her: 'a'mosh!'

Pa 2

Meg is carrying her stuffed animals and stomping along the hallway, 

Meg: Grr, Snarl Mreowwar!

Meg: Smiley surveyed her new territory and called it fine for hunting!

Pa 3

Her hair is now down and her dad is helping her pull down her nightgown, something very Elegant Gothic Lolitaesque in purple and gold. Her bedroom is very EGL as well save for the dinosaur shrine and the dinosaur stuffed animals all over though some of the dinosaurs are more anthropomorphic and have egl clothing on as well. A dinosaur costume, much like Sammi Hanratty’s in Pushing Daisies, is on a t-stand.

Dad: 'what story tonight sweetie?'

Meg: 'my new dinosaurs book!'

Pg 002

Pa 1

She's cuddled up next to him on her bed, reading aloud as he points to the words in the book, helping her with big words. The name of the book is Dinosaurs: A History. (Uses first JP logo in gold for front of book on black background with red harry potter font title(Dinosaurs: above and A History under the logo?))

Meg: the pro-procom-

Dad: pro-comp-sog-nathus.

Pa 2

Meg, repeats and: —the pro-comp-sog-nathus is a member of ginyuze

Dad: gee-nus.

Pa 3

Meg, repeats and: Genus!—a member of Genus—how do i say that‽ 

Dad: coe-lo-phys-id, I think.

Pa 4

He's tucking her into bed.

Dad: ‘Now off to sleep little one, we have to be up and at 'em early to meet Dr. Neill!'

Pa 5

She punches her arm into the air excitedly.

Meg: Dr. Neill!’

Dad, off screen: SLEEP!

Pg 003

Pa 1

Meg still in her nightie races through her breakfast while her dad reads the paper.

Dad, obscured by paper: 'chew your food before swallowing!'

Meg: 'yeff 'a'yy!’

Pa 2

She's wearing her prettiest dress(mint green with lots of white lace and mad amounts of green petticoats(Elegant Gothic Lolita as design cue again)) with white tights that shade to green towards her feet tights and black shiny mary janes with green bows on the straps and is sitting on her dad's lap, getting her pigtails done by him with dinosaur hair clips/bows.

Meg: 'will she sign my book?'

Dad: 'it's a book signing, sweetie. Of course she will.'

Pa 3

She races out to his waiting car, clutching a rolled up sheet of paper.

Pa 4

Sitting in the front seat, she clicks the belt while he's still locking the house

Meg: 'let's go! Let's go! Let's go!'

Pg 004

Pa 1

Standing in a large crowd, Meg is watching with rapt fascination as she holds the new book(Title: The Provo Raptor with a complete skull and rib cage on the cover), and a rolled up page, as Dr. Neill reads from it. She looks like Amanda Tapping, wearing a knee-length LBD, black pearls, microfishnet stockings, and red and black peep-toe heels.

Neill: —and the utahraptor skin recently found shows that the hypothesized array of feathers was greater than believed and likely gave the animal limited glide capability.

Pa 2

She's standing in line, only a handful of people away her dad holding a paper bag bunched as if it’s got something in it.

Dad, thought: 'hope she doesn't hyperventilate here, too.'

Pa 3

She's standing in front of dr. Neill absolutely speechless, her dad trying not to die laughing.

Pg 005

Pa 1

He's prodding her forward.

Dad: go on sweetie!

Pa 2

She's pink in the cheeks as she says

Meg: i drew this for you! And i want to be a paleontologist just like you!

Dad: she made me print out a sixteen page collage of you she made using a collage app.

Pa 3

She admires the drawing of herself next to a dinosaur skeleton then signs the book for her.

Neill: collage?

Dad: i have an app that takes a collection of pics and turns it into a specific choice. She spent a weekend finding all the pictures of you she could find online then had it generate the largest possible photo. A mosaic, i meant.

Pg 006

Pa 1

She's being held by her father as they talk with Neill later after the event at a cocktail event.

Dad: she's a sleepy little one. I should get her home.

Meg: no!

Pa 2

Neill: next time i'm in town, i'll send you an email and we'll have lunch, okay?

Neill, new bubble: And remember, pay attention in school and you can be a great paleontologist!

Pa 3

She's asleep in the car, her book open to the signature:

To Meg Myers,

To see the future, one must know the past. Pay attention in history and you'll unlock your future, Dinosaur Hunter!

Doctor Samantha Neill

Pg 007

Pa 1

He sets her on bed

Pa 2

gets her hair clips out,

Pa 3

then puts her in a nightie

Pa 4

Finally has her tucked in

Dad: sleep well my little dinosaur hunter

Pg 008

Pa 1

The next morning, dressed in black denim Shortalls over a striped red and black shirt(think calvin and hobbesesque) as she eats breakfast with hair in pig tails—one ribbon black and the other red, she proudly proclaims she's off to find a dinosaur. Her backpack with her new book and her Dinosaurs: A History book in it sits next to her in another chair along with other relevant supplies within. (Splash page with pa 2 inset)

Meg: today i'm going to find a dinosaur!

Pa 2

Her sandbox has a bunch of cars, plastic dinosaurs, and a bucket and pail, the latter two which she picks up:

Yellow narrator box on the top of the page: "Meg picked up her pail, grabbed her shovel from the sandpile, and set off to find a dinosaur."

Pg 009

Pa 1

Dino(has white bowtie and cummerbund markings on a violet body with green foot markings and a yellow feathered crest and spinal feather crest) sat at the back of the room watching the younger creche as they listened to the story. (Thirty some yandusaurusesque chicks covered with patchy down sit at the foot of the older dinosaur(greyed skin and feathers) in a cavern filled with crystals that light the room and lichen that some of the hatchlings are eating.)

Elder: when the fire rocks were sent to punish the meat eaters, our brother leaf eaters also perished for they were too large to escape as we could into the depths.

Pa 2 

Elder: we continued to live down here, adapting to the light, food, and the environment, until one day, the first of us able to conceptualize realized something here made us different than we had been on the surface.

Pa 3

Dino has moved to be closer to his elder as the story continues.

Elder: as time passed, we learned that new creatures covered the planet and we elected to remain down here for safety. For they had learned to create strange tools that could shatter our strongest tools with ease.

Pg 010

Pa 1

Elder and Dino are walking along a corridor lit by crystals and occasional glowing lichen.

Dino: are the pinkies really that dangerous?

Elder: we don't know. Perhaps one day we'll meet them but for now, we stay away from their cavers.

Dino, thought: i'm gonna be the first!

Pa 2

Elder covers Dino with a moss blanket then covers the crystals with a smaller one.

Elder: sleep well.

Pg 011

Pa 1

Dino heads off into the caverns, right past a sign scratched into the wall by claw using various lines of five with dots.* [develop replacement alphabet]

Narrator box: *to the surface.

Pa 2

Dino: adventure here i come! [find a calvin quote!]

Pa 3 

[possibly have a small map on each page showing them approaching each other, with each map showing a higher increment explored than actually shown?]

Dino pops his head into a cave. He sees some wumps.

Pa 4

Meg looks into a hole and sees a graboid racing past.

Pg 012

Pa 1

Dino looks in another cave and disturbs some singing fraggles.

Pa 2

Meg digs up a toad sitting on a chicken's egg with runes drawn on it

Pa 3

Dino skirts around a subterranean sarlacc pit.

Pa 4

Meg finds a broken open geode in her latest pit with rainbow gems inside

Pg 013

Pa 1

Dino finds a cave full of seven dwarves mining

Pa 2

Meg digs up a simple gold wedding band with elvish script.

Pa 3

Dino enters a cave full of light.

Pa 4

Celeb pokes her head into a cave in the woods. She sees a 

Pg 014

Pa1

The two see each other. Meg's bucket of $treasures go flying as they jump apart.

Dino: "Pinkies are real!"

Meg: "Dinosaurs still exist!"

Pa 2

Dino: you speak saurian!

Meg: you speak english!

Pa 3

As they clean up her treasures, they introduce themselves.

Dino: i'm dino. 

Meg: my name is Meg Myers.

Meg: but how did you survive? And learn english?

Pg 16

Pa 1

They're sitting underneath a tree, her D:AH book open to the yandusaurus entry.

Meg: see? This is a yandusaurus. He has the same hands and feet you do. I think this is what you are.

Pa 2

Dino: amazing! How did pinkies learn about us?

Meg: we're called humans. We dig up the past and study bones and old buildings and stuff so we know about the world.

Pa 3 

They're walking through the woods.

Meg: i'll show you how we live. Then you can show me where you live!

Dino: alright! 

Pg 17

Pa 1

In her bedroom she's showing Dino around.

Dino: what is that?

Meg: that's a television. It lets me watch things that are happening halfway around the world. I watched the prince of england marry a pretty girl!

Pa 2

Her father walks into her room and sees the dinosaur

Dad: it's time for a sn—WHAT IS THAT‽ 

Pa 3

He yanks her out of the room and slams the door, trapping Dino inside.

Pa 4

She's freaking out as he's on the phone.

Meg: daddy, dino's my friend!

Dad: shush! 

Dad: Please send the police, there's some sort of large reptile in the hous—no, not animal control. It's at least three feet tall!

Pg 18

Pa 1

Animal control shows up.

Pa 2

An angry dad holding a madly crying Meg struggling to get free shows the animal control the thing in the room as it tries to hide in her closet in a very ETesque way.

Pa 3

AC looking at the dinosaur who’s cowering in the closet amongst her stuffed animals.

Animal control: yeah, i need police backup here.

Pa 4

A still angry looking Meg is asleep on the couch until she's awoken by the arriving men in white suits

Pg 19

Pa 1

Meg wails in anger and fright as the men in white carry Dino out in a containment canister.

Pa 2

She tears after them and hits them

Meg, angrily: stop it! He's my friend!

Pa 3

Sitting in the chair in Meg's room, dad tries to explain to her why he did that.

Dad: sweetie, it could be dangerous. It's a wild animal. 

Pg 20

Pa 1

In a white lab, he's strapped down and a doctor in a cleanroom suit is taking blood from it. Dino's mouth is bound closed with a muzzle.

Dino: mrrrmph mrrrrm mmmpph!

Pa 2

News report on the television as Meg watches, crying.

$Newscaster: a previously undiscovered extant species of dinosaur has been discovered. A juvenile yandusaurus was discovered in $city in $state/country.

$Newscaster: they have evolved to become a subterranean species, living nearly a mile underneath $city in a massive warren.

Pa 3

Soldiers are gassing the warrens.

Pg 21

Pa 1

They're being herded out wearing muzzles and ankle chains and chained together. Think slaves in Django Unchained.

Pa 2

Dad and Meg watch in horror.

Pa 3

Neill is watching in horror as well from a different site.

Neill: that's where i met the girl and her dad. Where'd i put their number?

Pg 22

Pa 1

Neill knocking at their door.

Pa 2

Being let inside.

Pa 3

Meg hugs her.

Pa 4

they’re sitting on the couch

Meg, glaring at her dad: ...that's what happened!

Pa 5

Neill holding her as the girl hugs her.

Neill: your dad did the right thing, it's the government doing the wrong thing. It's the holocaust all over again!

Narrator box: which led to another explanation and a further traumatized six year old.

Pg 23

Pa 1

Narrator box: As the school years passed, young Meg adamantly followed the news in regards to the Saurians.

Meg is reading a newspaper spread out on the table.

Newspaper headline: SAURIANS DETAINED INDEFINITELY IN $RESERVATION

Pa 2

An older Meg(with mole hills, she’s about twelve or so, wearing a middle school tank top and a cheer skirt) is protesting outside a building with a BUREAH OF SAURIAN MANAGEMENT sign in the lawn.

Pa 3

She’s sitting in a library surrounded by college students, studying the American Indian Movement, making notes on a legal pad. She’s a couple years older. Now she’s dressed like lara croft’s default in the new games.

Pa 4

Same scene, a pair of dark skinned students sit down with her.

Female: You should look into the Black Panther movement too.

Male: Yeah, there’s a great book Called Black Against Empire.

Meg: Thanks.

Pg 24

Pa 1

Same ageish, she’s at a sit-in, now dressed like Tifa Lockhart minus the gloves.

Pa 2

She’s being pepper sprayed along with other students.

Pa 3

Being bailed out by her dad

Dad: How was it this time?

Meg: They pepper sprayed us.

Pa 4

Dad is sitting in his lawyer’s office, an asian woman.

Lawyer: I’d say class action lawsuit. A peaceful sit-in at a public setting and that action was not warranted.

Pg 25

Pa 1

Meg, now eighteen is giving a valedictorian speech, 

Meg: $speech

Pa 2

Meg sheds her robe, revealing her outfit, a black, red, and orange floral knee length dress with gold and turquoise peep toe stilettos, as her dad and Neill approach holding hands. With her grad cap off, we see she’s got her hair done up in a crown braid with the Childlike Empress’s head jewelry.

Dad, Neill:You did amazing, Meg.

Pa 3

She kisses dad's cheek.

Pa 4

She kisses Neill’s cheek.

Meg: thanks mom, dad. We need to have a fast dinner. There's a protest in $city $gf and i really want to get to.

Pa 5

Meg and $gf are sitting with Dad and Neill at dinner. $Gf is wearing a black suit and flats and obviously nothing underneath. Rocks the pseudoandrogynous look but rather well endowed. her hair is hermes conradesque.

Dad: Where’s the protest at? 

$gf: [city near the city story is based in]

Pa 6

Meg and $gf are sitting in the back of a van with others going to the protest, the two kissing, Meg s dress pushed up by $gf showing off she’s wearing a garter belt and stockings.

Others in van (M/M and a M/F combo) are making out too or watching Meg and $gf.

Pg 26

Pa 1

Meg and $gf are waving signs, still wearing same outfits. Meg holds 'Saurians are people too!'  sign $gf holds 'sentience=humanity' sign.

All chanting: FREE THE SAURIANS! FREE THEM NOW!

Pa 2

Meg is sitting in her first class, dressed like default lara croft in the reboot.

Professor: $lawintro

Pa 3

Meg has law homework in front of her while wearing a headset in a cubicle, dressed like hermione granger.

Meg: hello, mr $donor(?). The Saurian-American Foundation for Ethical Treatment of Yandusaurs wanted to thank you once more for generous donations over the past few years. The amount you've donated is in our gold supporting circle and we wanted to know if you'd care to up your donation another two hundred to become a sapphire supporter or beyond. I can send you literature on Sapphire Supporter if you'd care to—excellent, let me just verify your contact information.

Pa 4

Meg is sitting on a seat on an underground train, listening to a podcast.

Iphone: $podcastaboutsaurianlivingconditions

Pa 5

The two are in their dorm room, $gf is lying on her bed wearing just a pair of ivory white panties[that really offsets her very dark skin](her white ink back tattoo is something about her homosexuality) reading a text book, a strap-on dildo on the ground, partially hidden by her white bra. Meg is wearing a cami and panties as she sits at her laptop.

Meg: Dave’s parents got arrested for tax evasion, he said he can’t go to the Reservation now.

Pg 27 (rework to make it so that this can be a double page)

Splash page with inset panels of $gf (dressed like Lara Croft) is filming various scenes of saurians living in a shanty town.

$gf breaks into the reservation where the saurians are kept, a dry, dusty are in death valley.

Pg 28

Splash page, Dino $interview

Pg 29

Pa 1

$gf sits in a shanty under a bare bulb, her camera aimed at Dino.

Dino: Yes, i was the first to see your kind.

Dino: i met a pinkie and she showed me her book of dinosaurs and she showed the type of saurians we evolved from.

Pa 2

Dino has moved to look out the window while $gf has shifted to not be in sight. A US soldier walks past the window.

Dino: yes, i do still remember her name. I don't blame her or her father. 

Dino: ... Well, maybe her father a little bit. But he feared for his hatchling. I understand that fear now. For i fear for all of ours. We have a declining birth rate.

Pa 3

Dino: but that doesn't matter now. To us, your kind is… i think the word is anathema. We have a cultural fear of the natural light and your people proved our fears right.

Pa 4

Dino is on his mound/nest of blankets.

Dino: i am tired, human. Speak with the others. Skrill'x will escort you.

Pg 30

Pa 1

$gf is carefully shepherded through the shanty.

Skrill: careful, the spotlight returns along this path every eleven seconds.

Pa 2

$gf ducks into another shanty where half a dozen hatchlings shy from her and six parents move between her and them.

Skrill: she's the one we expected.

Pa 3

$gf is sitting with two of the males while the females and other male entertain the hatchlings. Skrill is standing at the door watching for patrols.

M1: why do your elders treat us this way?

$gf: truly no one knows. The most… accepted reason is either they want to turn you into weapons or something in your warrens was worth so much corporate interests bribed politicians.

Pa 4

$gf escapes the reserve but is caught in the act and shot. We see her blood splashed over a no trespassing sign.

Pg 31

Pa 1

$gf is at a vet's office, getting patched up but she's very pale and then

Pa 2

Meg is crying at a funeral, $gf’s photo near the casket.

Pa 3

The doctor that tried to save her is there too. She passes Meg the digital tape from the camera.

Pa 4

Meg Watches the video. 

Meg: Dino‽

Meg, thought: he's still alive!

Pg 32

Pa 1

The president is signing into law the Saurian American Limited Treaty.

Pa 2

Meg is there for it along with her parents, dressed like Corset Elizabeth from Bioshock.

Pa 3

Meg and Neill are getting coffee in some hipster, fair-trade beanhouse.

Meg: I've been accepted to Virginia Tech's earth sciences program with a delay so I can sit the bar.

Neill: i'm so proud of you! They've got the best program. You'll work with Horner!

Pa 4

Meg sitting the bar.

Pg 33

Pa 1

Her getting her passing grade and a number of offers of internship on the coffee table

Pa 2

Dr. Horner stands in front of Meg(librarian Evelyn O’Connell look) and seven other students.

Horner: I was able to negotiate access to the Saurian warrens. From what I saw of the leaked video, it's lead me to believe they have an extensive burial chamber. While i do feel this is somewhat sacrilegious to invade  the living spaces of a still living people at the same time this may help them gain their freedom.

Pa 3

Meg(lara croft look again, this time the infiltrator minus the molle vest and dropleg) is horrified by what she sees. The crystals she had heard about are gone. Walls are destroyed with wood supports in their place. The lichen is all dead. The majority of the tools they built are gone.

She takes out a pad to make notes.

Meg, thought: everything Dino told me about is gone…. The lichen is not glowing. The crystals are no longer here. There tools as well.

Pa 4

Writes:

Check black market for saurian tools

Find a new source in English Petroleum

Find new person to pass notes to the saurians

Pg 34

Pa 1

Meg tucks away her law notebook and takes out paleo one as Horner approaches.

Horner: miss Myers. Would you and Siri make the video archive before we begin?

Meg: of course.

Pa 2

A montage of Meg making audio notes of what they see as Siri holds the camera.

$montageshotsandtext

Pg 35

Pa 1

They find the burial chambers. An extensive warren filled with stones with names with bones carefully arranged in a way to support to skulls propped open with the name stones inside.

Montage of students carefully documenting their locations, the composition of each pile, the differences from baseline yandusauruses, and translations and the markings.

Siri: how did you learn the language so well?

Meg: a soldier used to smuggle out translated items to help people learn until he got caught.

Pg 36

Pa 1

A man in a well tailored suit approaches Meg(hermione at bill’s wedding dress) in a bar.

Man: miss Myers? I work for EP. I learned you were one of the people at the Saurian Warren Site. i'd like to tell you some things.

Pa 2

They move to a private room in the back of the pub and Meg palms on a recorder as man begins to talk, telling her about EP's activities in the Warrens as they stripped it of its natural resources and drilled speculative gas wells inside it.

ADD DIALOGUE

Pg 37

Pa 1

Meg is graduating. She's now doctor Meg Myers.

Pa 2

Someone approaches her as she removes her robes, revealing a wonder woman inspired tank top and a blue with silver stars pleated skirt. A woman in a plum suit approaches.

Plum: doctor Myers, I'm Amelia McIntosh. The Rogers's Political Sciences Center would like to tender you an offer: as the new Saurian-American Interaction Coordinator.

Pa 3

Dino is sitting on the saurian council, one of the few well enough to move around. Though all know he's essentially why this happened, he's trusted. He always does the right thing.

Elders: ... the decision is unanimous. Dino Thresh is now the new pinky liaison.

Pa 4

Shaking himself awake from his doZe.

Dino: —wha‽ 

Pg 38

Pa 1

Narrator box: Years have passed and Meg is now in her late forties, a wife of fifteen years, and two beautiful little twin girls, about six.

She’s sitting on the couch, the girls on either side of her reading the card that came from the White House. She’s dressed like a fifties mom would be.

Girl 1: You get to meet the president, mommy!

Pa 2

Standing in the oval office the president smiles as he stands and extends a hand. Meg is wearing a nice suit with knee length pleated

President: over the years your group has been the best friend the Saurians could have ever had as you fought for civil rights, First Nation status, and repatriation. That's why I want to extend you the new position of the American Ambassador to the Saurian Nation.

Pa 3

For the first time legally, Meg is standing across from a childhood friend. Dino extends his hand after signing the treaty in his peoples' name.

Meg: congratulAtions Dino. Welcome home.

Dino: thank you, Meg.

Pg 39

Pa 1

Dino, the official ambassador to the US is on a tour of Washington, DC with Meg and her two daughters.

Pa 2

A speciesist attacks them, harming all four and killing Dino yelling

Attacker: god hates Saurians!

Pa 3

The funeral is attended by politicians from around the world. Meg has a bandage on her face covering one eye, her kids both have broken arms.

Pa 4

Meg is approached by a group of people wearing democratic insignia on lapels.

One: Dr. Myers? We'd like to talk to you about running for office.

Pg 40

Pa 1

Meg walking onto stage as red, white, and blue ticker tape falls. the scar on her face is prominent. She now requires an eyepatch. It has the captain america shield on it.

Intercom voice: the president-elect, the first female president, dr. Meg Myers-Rox!

Pa 2

Sitting in the oval office, Meg signs her first law, the Sauron-American Protection and Immigration ENablement acT. Her eye patch has the presidential seal.

Pa 3

She sits back and pats her barely pregnant stomach.

Meg, thought: Dean? Deanna?