ANYtime #1: COLD BOOT

A graphic novel script by Buzz Drainpipe
Unauthorized marginal interference by Dax Silver
Suggested soundtrack: Sad Lovers and Giants / And Also the Trees, played from a warped cassette deck with one speaker dying

ISSUE LOG

Title: COLD BOOT
Length: 24 pages
Setting: A coastal city that resembles Boston after a nervous breakdown and an English market town after dreaming in concrete.
Main Character: Rafe Null, dishwasher, night-walker, accidental reality operator.
Core Concept: ANYtime is not time travel. It is the leaking of simultaneous present moments into one another.

PAGE 1

Panel 1

Wide shot. Rain at night. A narrow street of brick buildings, pawn shops, closed cafés, and utility poles wrapped in old concert flyers. Everything looks familiar but not quite placeable. A sign reads: ANVILTIME PAWN.

A lone figure walks toward us in a hooded coat. This is RAFE NULL, late 20s or early 30s, tired in a way that predates sleep.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I was just washing dishes when the city shifted.

Panel 2

Closer on Rafe. Behind him, the streetlights flicker in a wave, one after another.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Not the whole city.

Panel 3

A puddle at Rafe’s feet. The reflection shows the street in daylight. People walk past upside-down in the water. Rafe is not reflected.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Just enough to notice.

Panel 4

Interior of a cheap diner kitchen. Stainless steel. Steam. Fluorescent light. Rafe’s hands scrub a plate beneath a hard stream of water.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Plate. Water. Bassline.

Panel 5

The same panel repeated, but the plate is cracked now. The water runs upward.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Plate. Water. Bassline.

Panel 6

The same kitchen, but the clock on the wall has two faces: one says 11:17, one says 3:42.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Then a different conversation three rooms over.

Panel 7

Back outside. A public payphone rings in the rain.

SFX:
BRRNNG

CAPTION / RAFE:
A phone rang.

Panel 8

Rafe stands before the payphone. The receiver trembles on the hook.

CAPTION / RAFE:
No one answered.

Panel 9

Close on Rafe’s eye. Inside the pupil: a tiny version of Rafe stands in a labyrinth of streets.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I stepped sideways.

Panel 10

Full-width bottom panel. Rafe stands alone in a circular intersection. Concentric road markings spiral outward like a sigil or system diagram.

CAPTION / RAFE:
And the mirror test passed.

BUZZ MARGIN NOTE:
Time is a container. We’re just badly deployed.

PAGE 2

Panel 1

Morning. Rafe’s apartment. Bare mattress. Stacked books. A chipped mug. A milk crate full of cassettes. The room is tiny and over-organized in the way of someone barely holding himself together.

The window looks onto the same street from page 1, but the pawn shop sign now reads ANYTIME PAWN.

CAPTION / RAFE:
By morning, the sign had corrected itself.

Panel 2

Rafe stares at the sign through blinds.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 3

Close on a notebook. Rafe has written:

Anviltime Pawn
Anytime Pawn
Time shifted
Dishwater?
Music?
Stress?
Bad food?
Call Dr. S?
Do not call Dr. S.

Panel 4

He turns on a cassette deck. The label on the tape reads: MIRROR TEST / NIGHT WALK MIX.

SFX:
K-CHUNK

Panel 5

Rafe sits on the floor, listening. The room seems to lengthen behind him.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I tried to reproduce it because I am, despite evidence, an idiot.

Panel 6

A kettle whistles on a hotplate. The steam forms branching lines, almost like a transit map.

CAPTION / RAFE:
But phenomena don’t like being called back.

Panel 7

Close on Rafe’s face. He is trying not to blink.

CAPTION / RAFE:
They like being misunderstood.

DAX FOOTNOTE:
Drainpipe here confuses mystery with method, which is typical of men who own more than one broken tape deck.

PAGE 3

Panel 1

Exterior. The diner. Sign reads: THE LOW CEILING. It is a boxy 24-hour place wedged beneath an overpass.

Panel 2

Interior. Rafe enters the kitchen. The cook, MARTA VOSS, 50s, sharp-eyed, cigarette voice, chopping onions with surgical efficiency.

MARTA:
You’re late.

RAFE:
By how much?

MARTA:
Morally or professionally?

Panel 3

Rafe checks the wall clock. It reads 9:00. His watch reads 9:00. The reflection in a hanging pot reads 3:42.

RAFE:
Professionally.

MARTA:
Eight minutes.

Panel 4

Rafe ties an apron. Marta watches him.

MARTA:
You look like you saw a ghost.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 5

A beat.

RAFE:
A scheduling problem.

Panel 6

Marta points with the knife toward the dish pit.

MARTA:
Good. We have those here too.

Panel 7

Dish pit. Rafe puts on gloves. A mountain of plates waits. Steam rises like a stage curtain.

CAPTION / RAFE:
There are jobs that make you disappear.

Panel 8

Close on Rafe’s gloved hands plunging into gray water.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Dishwashing is one.

Panel 9

Under the surface of the water, reflected lights become stars.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Prayer is probably another.

PAGE 4

Panel 1

The diner floor. Customers at booths. A young couple arguing softly. An old man eating pie. A bike courier asleep upright.

Panel 2

A man in a black suit sits alone at the counter. He has a face so ordinary it becomes impossible to remember. This is THE ORCHESTRATOR, though we do not name him yet.

Marta pours him coffee.

MARTA:
Same as usual?

ORCHESTRATOR:
Eventually.

Panel 3

In the kitchen, Rafe hears that word. He freezes.

CAPTION / RAFE:
There are words that arrive wearing someone else’s coat.

Panel 4

Rafe looks through the pass window. The suited man’s reflection in the chrome napkin dispenser is not sitting. It is standing behind Rafe.

Panel 5

Rafe spins around. No one behind him.

Panel 6

Back through the pass window. The suited man raises his coffee cup without looking at Rafe.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Careful with repetition.

Panel 7

Rafe drops a plate.

SFX:
CRACK

Panel 8

Everyone in the diner turns toward the kitchen.

Panel 9

The broken plate on the floor. Its pieces form a near-perfect circle.

DAX FOOTNOTE:
The circular plate as fractured cosmology. Obvious, yes. Effective, regrettably also yes.

PAGE 5

Panel 1

Later. Alley behind the diner. Rafe smokes though he clearly hates smoking. Marta leans by the door.

MARTA:
You don’t smoke.

RAFE:
I’m borrowing the gesture.

Panel 2

Marta takes the cigarette from him, smokes it properly.

MARTA:
What’s going on?

Panel 3

Rafe hesitates.

RAFE:
Yesterday, did we have a customer in a red raincoat?

MARTA:
We had twelve customers in red raincoats. It was raining.

Panel 4

Rafe points toward the street.

RAFE:
Did the pawn shop used to have a different name?

Panel 5

Marta looks toward the street. The pawn shop sign now reads ANVILTIME PAWN again.

Panel 6

Marta squints.

MARTA:
Ugly sign.

Panel 7

Rafe stares, terrified and vindicated.

RAFE:
You see that?

Panel 8

Marta looks at him.

MARTA:
See what?

Panel 9

The sign behind her now reads ANYTIME PAWN.

RAFE:
Right.

PAGE 6

Panel 1

Rafe crosses the street toward the pawn shop. The city noise dampens around him.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I have always distrusted doors that wanted me.

Panel 2

Close on the pawn shop window. Items inside:

trumpet with moss in the bell
old server rack
cracked mirror
bicycle wheel spinning slowly by itself
framed photo of Rafe as a child, though his face is scratched out

Panel 3

Rafe enters.

SFX:
DING

Panel 4

Interior. The shop is much larger inside than outside. Narrow aisles. Dust. Shelves of clocks, radios, ritual tools, old keyboards, cassette decks, religious statues, routers, broken umbrellas.

Panel 5

Behind the counter sits ELSIE QUELL, 70s, bright eyes, white hair tied back with a black ribbon. She reads a paperback titled THE WATER COURSE WAY OF SYSTEM FAILURE.

ELSIE:
You’re early.

RAFE:
For what?

ELSIE:
That depends on whether this is your first time asking.

Panel 6

Rafe backs toward the door.

RAFE:
I’m looking for nothing.

ELSIE:
People usually are.

Panel 7

Elsie reaches beneath the counter and places a small object before him: a brass key with no teeth.

ELSIE:
This came in for you.

Panel 8

Close on the key. Engraved: ANYtime.

BUZZ MARGIN NOTE:
Every key without teeth opens something that has no business being locked.

PAGE 7

Panel 1

Rafe does not touch the key.

RAFE:
Who brought it?

ELSIE:
You did.

Panel 2

Rafe laughs once, dry and humorless.

RAFE:
No.

ELSIE:
That is what you said then too.

Panel 3

Elsie leans forward.

ELSIE:
Listen carefully. Time is not a river.

Panel 4

A panel showing a diagram on a scrap of paper. Circles inside circles, lines connecting them, arrows curving sideways.

ELSIE:
It is not an arrow. It is not a wheel. Those are toys philosophers throw at the dark.

Panel 5

Elsie taps the diagram.

ELSIE:
Time is access.

Panel 6

Rafe looks at the key.

RAFE:
Access to what?

Panel 7

Behind Elsie, all the clocks stop at once.

SFX:
TK

Panel 8

Elsie smiles sadly.

ELSIE:
The present tense.

PAGE 8

Panel 1

Rafe exits the pawn shop quickly, key in hand despite himself.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I had never stolen anything from a pawn shop before.

Panel 2

He checks his palm. The key has left a black mark shaped like a spiral.

CAPTION / RAFE:
I had never been loaned a curse either.

Panel 3

Street scene. The city is busier now. A parade seems to be happening in the distance, but no sound reaches Rafe.

Panel 4

Rafe passes a bus shelter. An advertisement reads:

BECOME WHAT YOU ARE. CALL NOW.

Below: a phone number made of repeating 8s.

Panel 5

The payphone from page 1 rings again.

SFX:
BRRNNG

Panel 6

Rafe walks past, trying to ignore it.

SFX:
BRRNNG

Panel 7

He stops.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 8

He turns back.

RAFE:
Absolutely not.

Panel 9

He picks up the receiver.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Rafe Null?

RAFE:
Who is this?

VOICE ON PHONE:
You, mostly.

PAGE 9

Panel 1

Close on Rafe, phone pressed to ear. Rain begins though the sky is clear.

RAFE:
Define mostly.

VOICE ON PHONE:
The portion that did not hang up.

Panel 2

Across the street, Rafe sees himself standing in the diner window, staring back.

Panel 3

Phone Rafe turns away from Window Rafe.

RAFE:
I’m hallucinating.

VOICE ON PHONE:
No. Hallucination is local. This is distributed.

Panel 4

The payphone cord stretches impossibly long, coiling down the sidewalk like a black snake.

VOICE ON PHONE:
You found the key.

RAFE:
You sent it?

VOICE ON PHONE:
We inherited it.

Panel 5

A city bus passes between Rafe and the diner window.

Panel 6

When the bus clears, Window Rafe is gone. The diner sign now reads THE HIGH CEILING.

Panel 7

Rafe grips the receiver.

RAFE:
What is happening?

VOICE ON PHONE:
A bad deployment.

Panel 8

Tiny panel. The suited man from the diner watches from inside the bus as it drives away.

VOICE ON PHONE:
And someone has noticed.

PAGE 10

Panel 1

Rafe runs through the city. The phone receiver is still in his hand, cord stretching behind him into impossible distance.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Do not force it.

RAFE:
Force what?

VOICE ON PHONE:
Anything.

Panel 2

Rafe turns down an alley.

VOICE ON PHONE:
The first rule is flow.

Panel 3

The alley splits into three alleys, each slightly different.

VOICE ON PHONE:
The second rule is attention.

Panel 4

Rafe chooses the middle alley.

VOICE ON PHONE:
The third rule is never trust a rule you learned while frightened.

Panel 5

The alley becomes a corridor lined with restaurant sinks. Dishes stacked to the ceiling.

Panel 6

Rafe slows.

RAFE:
This isn’t possible.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Correct. Keep moving.

Panel 7

A child appears at the end of the corridor. Pale, solemn, wearing an oversized hospital gown. This is the CRONENBERG CHILD.

Panel 8

The child looks up.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
Are you my future?

Panel 9

Rafe drops the receiver.

SFX:
CLACK

PAGE 11

Panel 1

The phone receiver swings from the cord in the impossible sink corridor. The voice continues from it.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Do not answer that.

Panel 2

Rafe steps toward the child.

RAFE:
Are you lost?

Panel 3

The child smiles. Too many adult teeth.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
Everyone asks the wrong parent.

Panel 4

The corridor walls bulge. Behind them, shadows of other Rafes wash dishes in other kitchens.

Panel 5

The child points at Rafe’s chest.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
You’re leaking.

Panel 6

Close on Rafe’s chest. Under his shirt, faint light pulses like a tiny emergency beacon.

Panel 7

Rafe backs away.

RAFE:
I need to wake up.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
That’s how they get in.

Panel 8

The child opens its mouth. Instead of a tongue, there is a small clock hand spinning wildly.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
Say your name.

Panel 9

Rafe grabs the receiver from the floor.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Do not authenticate.

PAGE 12

Panel 1

Rafe runs. The corridor collapses behind him into dishwater.

Panel 2

He bursts out into the diner kitchen. But everything is wrong. The kitchen is clean, unused, abandoned.

Panel 3

The diner floor is empty. Chairs upside down on tables. Dust on the counter.

RAFE:
Marta?

Panel 4

A newspaper on the counter. Headline: LOW CEILING DINER CLOSES AFTER 1978 GAS INCIDENT.

Panel 5

Rafe picks it up. The date reads tomorrow.

Panel 6

The suited man sits at the far booth in the abandoned diner.

ORCHESTRATOR:
You are very loud.

Panel 7

Rafe turns.

RAFE:
Who are you?

Panel 8

The Orchestrator gestures to the booth across from him.

ORCHESTRATOR:
A maintenance function.

Panel 9

Rafe does not sit.

RAFE:
That’s not an answer.

ORCHESTRATOR:
It is more answer than you can currently survive.

PAGE 13

Panel 1

The Orchestrator pours coffee from a pot that was not there before.

ORCHESTRATOR:
There are structures that permit freedom.

Panel 2

Close on coffee filling a cup. The surface shows a city grid rotating slowly.

ORCHESTRATOR:
And there are freedoms that destroy structure.

Panel 3

Rafe grips the key in his pocket.

RAFE:
I didn’t do anything.

Panel 4

The Orchestrator looks at him with mild disappointment.

ORCHESTRATOR:
That is never true.

Panel 5

The diner windows show multiple versions of the street at once: sunny, flooded, on fire, snowing, empty.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Every attention is an instruction. Every desire selects. Every fear replicates.

Panel 6

Rafe sits despite himself.

RAFE:
What do you want?

Panel 7

The Orchestrator slides a sugar packet across the table. It reads: CONSISTENCY.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Return the key.

Panel 8

Rafe looks at it.

RAFE:
To you?

ORCHESTRATOR:
To any version of yourself wise enough not to have opened this.

Panel 9

Rafe’s hand tightens into a fist.

RAFE:
What happens if I don’t?

Panel 10

The Orchestrator sips coffee.

ORCHESTRATOR:
The system will simplify you.

PAGE 14

Panel 1

Suddenly the diner fills with people, each appearing mid-action: eating, arguing, laughing, crying. Time layers stack on top of one another.

Panel 2

Marta appears behind the counter, younger by twenty years.

YOUNG MARTA:
Order up.

Panel 3

Another Marta appears, older, hair gray, sweeping glass from the floor.

OLD MARTA:
We should’ve sold the place.

Panel 4

Rafe sees a teenage version of himself in a booth, sitting across from a woman whose face is obscured by light.

TEEN RAFE:
I don’t know how to stay.

Panel 5

Current Rafe stands, shaken.

RAFE:
Stop it.

Panel 6

The Orchestrator remains calm while realities flicker around him.

ORCHESTRATOR:
I am.

Panel 7

A huge shadow passes over the diner windows. Something geometric and alive: the BEING OF BUCKY, a tensegrity creature of rods, cables, eyes, and orbiting city maps.

Panel 8

Everyone freezes except Rafe and the Orchestrator.

ORCHESTRATOR:
That, for instance, is not supposed to notice individuals.

Panel 9

Rafe looks out at the Being.

RAFE:
What is it?

ORCHESTRATOR:
An architectural opinion.

PAGE 15

Panel 1

The Being of Bucky presses one long geometric limb against the diner window. The glass bends inward but does not break.

Panel 2

Inside its transparent body are small rooms, staircases, bridges, and tiny people walking upside down.

BEING OF BUCKY:
LESS IS THE STRUCTURE.

Panel 3

Rafe covers his ears. The words are visual, not auditory.

BEING OF BUCKY:
MORE IS THE FAILURE TO SEE IT.

Panel 4

The Orchestrator stands.

ORCHESTRATOR:
You see? Attraction follows breach.

Panel 5

Rafe pulls the key from his pocket.

RAFE:
How do I close it?

Panel 6

The Orchestrator extends his hand.

ORCHESTRATOR:
By surrendering the instrument.

Panel 7

Close on Rafe’s hand holding the key. The key has grown teeth now, each one shaped like a tiny street.

Panel 8

Rafe looks at the frozen layers of people around him. Young Marta. Old Marta. Teen Rafe. The obscured woman.

Panel 9

He closes his fist around the key.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 10

The Orchestrator’s pleasant expression vanishes.

ORCHESTRATOR:
That was your least original answer.

PAGE 16

Panel 1

The diner explodes into motion. All versions of everyone resume simultaneously.

SFX:
ALL DIALOGUE AT ONCE

Panel 2

Rafe runs for the kitchen. The Orchestrator follows without hurrying.

Panel 3

In the kitchen, the dish pit has become a black circular pool.

Panel 4

The phone receiver floats in the pool.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Finally.

Panel 5

Rafe kneels and grabs it.

RAFE:
Tell me where to go.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Wrong interface.

Panel 6

The Orchestrator enters the kitchen.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Rafe.

Panel 7

Rafe turns toward him.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Do not confuse refusal with freedom.

Panel 8

The black water ripples. Reflections of several Rafes appear, all speaking at once.

REFLECTION RAFES:
Jump. Don’t jump. Listen. Don’t listen. Become. Return. Break. Bend.

Panel 9

Close on Rafe. Breathing hard. Then oddly calm.

CAPTION / RAFE:
For one second, I stopped choosing.

Panel 10

The water stills completely.

CAPTION / RAFE:
And the city chose through me.

PAGE 17

Panel 1

Rafe steps into the black dishwater pool.

Panel 2

The kitchen tilts ninety degrees. Gravity forgets its contract.

Panel 3

Rafe falls sideways through panels of his own life: childhood bedroom, school hallway, hospital waiting room, train platform, diner booth, empty beach.

Panel 4

A massive caption fills half the page.

CAPTION / RAFE:
ANYtime is not travel.

Panel 5

Rafe floats in a white void full of doorways. Each doorway opens to a different present moment.

CAPTION / RAFE:
It is permissions.

Panel 6

A doorway shows Marta laughing. Another shows Marta crying. Another shows no Marta at all.

CAPTION / RAFE:
It is the terrible abundance of now.

Panel 7

The Cronenberg Child appears beside him, floating upside down.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
You didn’t say your name.

Panel 8

Rafe looks at the child.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 9

The child smiles.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
Good. Names are handles.

PAGE 18

Panel 1

Rafe drifts toward a doorway marked by a flickering sign: THE HAROLD LOOP.

Panel 2

Inside: three people sit on folding chairs on a black stage. They repeat fragments of earlier dialogue.

PERFORMER 1:
You’re early.

PERFORMER 2:
Careful with repetition.

PERFORMER 3:
Everyone asks the wrong parent.

Panel 3

The stage expands into the diner, then the alley, then the pawn shop, all occupying the same theatrical space.

Panel 4

A man in a black turtleneck, cigarette in hand, watches from the audience. His face is obscured by smoke. This is the HAROLD LOOP manifested.

HAROLD LOOP:
First idea. Last consequence.

Panel 5

Rafe lands on the stage.

RAFE:
I don’t understand what any of you want.

Panel 6

The performers lean forward together.

PERFORMERS:
Pattern recognition.

Panel 7

The Harold Loop claps once.

SFX:
CLAP

Panel 8

The whole page layout rearranges itself into three rows of three equal panels, echoing page 1.

HAROLD LOOP:
Again, but aware.

PAGE 19

Panel 1

Rafe is back in the diner kitchen, washing dishes.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Plate.

Panel 2

Water runs.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Water.

Panel 3

The cassette bassline vibrates from somewhere unseen.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Bassline.

Panel 4

Rafe pauses. This time, instead of panic, he listens.

Panel 5

The kitchen door opens. Marta enters.

MARTA:
You’re late.

Panel 6

Rafe answers differently than page 3.

RAFE:
By how much?

Panel 7

Marta smiles slightly.

MARTA:
Less than usual.

Panel 8

Through the pass window, the Orchestrator sits at the counter.

Panel 9

Rafe looks at him without fear.

RAFE:
Same as usual?

Panel 10

The Orchestrator looks up. For the first time, he seems surprised.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Eventually.

PAGE 20

Panel 1

Rafe steps out of the kitchen and sits at the counter beside the Orchestrator.

MARTA:
Since when do you take breaks?

RAFE:
Since now got crowded.

Panel 2

The Orchestrator studies him.

ORCHESTRATOR:
You think awareness grants immunity.

RAFE:
No.

Panel 3

Rafe takes the sugar packet labeled CONSISTENCY.

RAFE:
I think it grants better questions.

Panel 4

He tears open the packet. Instead of sugar, black sand pours onto the counter.

Panel 5

The grains arrange themselves into a tiny map of the city.

Panel 6

Rafe places the key on the map. Streets curl toward it.

Panel 7

The diner lights flicker. Every customer turns to look at Rafe.

Panel 8

The Orchestrator speaks quietly.

ORCHESTRATOR:
If you open this deliberately, you become responsible for what answers.

Panel 9

Rafe looks around: Marta, the customers, the rain, the city beyond the windows.

RAFE:
Was I not already?

PAGE 21

Panel 1

The key turns by itself on the counter.

SFX:
KLIK

Panel 2

Every clock in the diner changes to a different time.

Panel 3

The door opens. Standing outside is Rafe, older, bleeding from one ear, wearing the same coat but covered in white dust.

Panel 4

Current Rafe stands.

OLDER RAFE:
Do not trust the version of us that calls this enlightenment.

Panel 5

The Orchestrator also stands.

ORCHESTRATOR:
That one should not be here.

Panel 6

Older Rafe laughs weakly.

OLDER RAFE:
No one should be anywhere. That’s the joke.

Panel 7

Marta grabs a heavy skillet from behind the counter.

MARTA:
Rafe.

RAFE:
Yes?

Panel 8

Marta points from Current Rafe to Older Rafe.

MARTA:
Which one owes me rent?

Panel 9

Older Rafe collapses into the diner.

Panel 10

Close on his hand. He clutches a cassette labeled: ANYtime VOL. II / DO NOT PLAY IN ORDER.

PAGE 22

Panel 1

Current Rafe kneels beside Older Rafe.

RAFE:
What happened?

Panel 2

Older Rafe grips his coat.

OLDER RAFE:
You found root access.

Panel 3

The Orchestrator reaches for the cassette.

ORCHESTRATOR:
This is contamination.

Panel 4

Marta slams the skillet down between his hand and the tape.

SFX:
CLANG

MARTA:
Customer’s bleeding. You can wait.

Panel 5

The Orchestrator looks at Marta, genuinely curious.

ORCHESTRATOR:
You are not relevant.

Panel 6

Marta leans close.

MARTA:
That’s how I know I’m useful.

Panel 7

Older Rafe whispers to Current Rafe.

OLDER RAFE:
The city is not the system.

Panel 8

Close on Older Rafe’s eye. Inside it: a vast black ocean with apartment buildings rising from it.

OLDER RAFE:
It’s the symptom.

Panel 9

The diner door swings open again.

Panel 10

Outside, instead of the street, there is a forest. Tall, black trees. Mist. Something watching between trunks.

PAGE 23

Panel 1

The diner is now lit by forest light. Everyone silent.

Panel 2

Elsie Quell steps out from between the trees, holding an umbrella though there is no rain.

ELSIE:
You opened it in public.

Panel 3

Rafe stands, cassette in one hand, key in the other.

RAFE:
I didn’t know there was a private option.

Panel 4

Elsie looks at the Orchestrator.

ELSIE:
Still pretending you maintain things?

Panel 5

The Orchestrator’s face blurs for a second, becoming several different faces: inspector, bartender, therapist, bus driver.

ORCHESTRATOR:
Still romanticizing collapse?

Panel 6

Elsie smiles.

ELSIE:
Collapse is what badly named transformation looks like from below.

Panel 7

The Being of Bucky appears in the sky above the forest, enormous and quiet.

Panel 8

The Cronenberg Child stands under a table, eating sugar packets.

CRONENBERG CHILD:
Someone should say the wrong thing soon.

Panel 9

Rafe looks from Elsie to the Orchestrator.

RAFE:
What is ANYtime?

Panel 10

Elsie and the Orchestrator answer simultaneously.

ELSIE:
A doorway.

ORCHESTRATOR:
A breach.

PAGE 24

Panel 1

Full-page splash, but broken into faint ghost-panels beneath the image.

Rafe stands at the threshold between diner and forest. Behind him: fluorescent kitchen, Marta, Older Rafe bleeding, the Orchestrator, customers frozen in fear. Ahead of him: black trees, impossible moon, geometric creature in the sky, Elsie waiting.

The payphone sits among the trees, ringing.

In the upper corner, the cassette tape unspools across the sky like a timeline.

CAPTION / RAFE:
There are moments when the self becomes a hallway.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Not a room.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Not a destination.

CAPTION / RAFE:
Just doors learning hunger.