[Seventh Seal] Page 76 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Jesra looks back and smiles.

Jesra: Pete!

Row 1 Box 2 Klery looks back and doesn't see anything except Pete and the horse.

Klery: Pete is a friend of yours? Your boyfriend?

Row 1 Box 3 Jesra blushes.

Jesra: Er.....we...just...met...

Row 2 Box 1 Klery smiles knowingly and puts her hand on Jesra's shoulder.

Klery: Today would have been my and my husband's 50^th anniversary. It's an important day to me. I remember what it was like. You don't have to explain anything to me.

Row 2 Box 2 Jesra keeps blushing and just knocks on Forsalio's door.

Jesra: Er.....

Row 3 Box 1 Forsalio is surrounded by three women, admiring his new suit. One of them has a pair of grapes and is ready to feed him one.

Off Panel: Knockknockknock

Row 3 Box 2 Forsalio looks up, the women look annoyed.

Forsalio: What in the?

Row 3 Box 3 The door opens, and Forsalio looks out at a waiting Jesra and Klery.

Forsalio: Yes?

Row 4 Box 1 Vesuvius bite's Amanda's hand again.

Row 4 Box 2 This time Amanda let's go.

Row 4 Box 3 Vesuvius runs up her shoulder.

Row 4 Box 4 They look at each other.

[Seventh Seal] Page 75 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Amanda looks right, after Vesuvius has moved.

Amanda: What?

Box 2 Vesuvius taps her from the other side.

Box 3 Amanda starts to turn her head but stops.

Row 2 Box 1 Amanda reaches a hand up quickly and grabs Vesuvius.

Box 2 Vesuvius bites her hand.

Box 3 Amanda yowls in pain but doesn't let go.

Row 3 Box 1 Amanda points her wand at Vesuvius.

Row 3 Box 2 Pete (from Pete's perspective) yanks the wand out of Amanda's hand.

Row 3 Box 3 Amanda shrieks in surprise. From Amanda's perspective the wand flies through the air.

Amanda: What?!

New Product - Two Stories - Unfood and Mining the Dream Plane

Here.

These are respectively the best and worst stories I've ever written, apparently. One of the stories was so bad that the writing program at World Con politely suggested, "Maybe you should stop writing science fiction and take up another hobby?" The other one got a note from a small but highly acclaimed publisher, "Good story but not what we're looking for." You guess which is which.

Unfood is about a down on his luck freighter captain whose spaceship gets intercepted carrying illegal cargo. His crew is sentenced to a harsh rock and he gets away scott free, but needs to get them out of prison, so he takes a desperate job to a fat prison ship, designed to FORCE people to lose weight. He finds the place abandoned, and is trapped on board. Talk about counting calories...this is a survival story where any calorie is a good one.

Mining the Dreamplane is about a future in which creativity is much more specialized than it is today. A writer's job is done by seven or eight people, including a crafter, a refiner, etc. But the most 'glamorous' job is the Miner, who goes into a computer simulation called the 'dream plane' to get raw creative stuff which others process. A miner gets stuck in this state when his handler is grabbed by the police and sentenced to wear corporate advertising to pay for his crimes. While he deals with the ramifications, the miner slowly starts to die and have weirder and weirder hallucinations.

Crazy Ivan

Check out this episode!

[Seventh Seal] Page 74 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Slither (from Slither's perspective) is floating in the air and looks shocked.

Row 1 Box 2 Pete does a baseball windup.

Row 1 Box 3 Pete throws Slither into a nearby trash bin, ricocheting him off the lid.

Pete: Not so fun when you're on the other end is it?

Row 1 Box 4 The lid to the trash slams down, trapping Slither.

Row 2 Box 1 Jesra looks at Klery.

Jesra: I was talking to my imaginary friend.

Box 2

Klery smiles warmly.

Klery: I used to have one of those a long time ago. But...

Box 3

Jesra smiles and takes Klery's hand.

Jesra: This way. You'll see.

Row 3 Box 1 Amanda shoots another lightning bolt at Sluice.

Row 3 Box 2 Sluice moans and collapses.

Row 3 Box 3 Amanda reaches forward to shoot another lightning bolt.

Amanda: And now we end this.

Row 3 Box 4 Vesuvius springs up onto Amanda's back and taps the side of her neck.

[Seventh Seal] Page 73 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Amanda extends her wand and shoots a lightning bolt at Sluice.

Slither slides down off the side of the roof and does a series of massive leaps towards the horse.

Box 2 Sluice is thrown backwards off the horse.

Slither keeps jumping and leaps up, slamming into Vesuvius.

Vesuvius: Jesra, get Klery to where she needs to be!

Row 2 Box 1

Jesra slips off the horse.

Jesra: Where is that?

Row 2 Box 2 Sluice slowly gets up.

Vesuvius and Slither roll around in a ball of fury wrestling with each other.

Vesuvius: Follow your instinct!

Row 3 Box 1

Wide shot of the scene showing Jesra and Klery from Klery's perspective with just the two of them and the horse.

Jesra: Somehow I don't like the sound of that.

Row 3 Box 2

Klery looks at Amanda.

Klery: Don't like the sound of what? Why did you bring me here?

Row 4 Box 1

Amanda flies up and slams Sluice with another lightning bolt, knocking him backward.

Slither pins Vesuvius and draws a knife to slice him.

Row 4 Box 2

Pete (from Pete's perspective) picks Slither up into the air.

Precyber - Chapter 29

Clark finally drops to rock bottom.

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