Prologue - Page 010

2023.03.16

This is a comic page with 6 panels. Panel 1: Kelsie is shown still standing in front of the computer monitor while looking over to her left, where her noseplugs are being dispensed. There is rattling as the item is dropped down the chute connecting from the cabinets crowning the room down to a vending unit. The vending unit is an enclosed shelf that the dispensed items fall down into. The front of the vending unit is covered by a door with a handle on the front for one to grab and lift it. Panel 2: This panel is a close-up showing Kelsie's hand (in her fingerless gloves) lifting the door by the handle to reveal several noseplugs in a variety of colors. Panel 3: Kelsie has one eye closed in a wink as she collects the noseplugs to put into a small purple purse with a golden metal clasp with a few other small items in it. Behind her, the comms device is shown, still resting in the dock, beeping while flashing a notice to remind the user to unplug it. Meanwhile, the computer monitor is playing a verbal message that says "Please remember to recycle! Thank you!" Panel 4 reads: "It was odd for the waste department to need help, maybe someone was sick" at the top of the panel. Below, Kelsie is shown exiting from the supply closet and crossing the street to the tram stop where the tram is stopped. Kelsie exclaims something to let them know she plans on boarding. There are a few people standing at the tram stop, where they're waiting to enter, leaving the tram, or they're a social worker greeting and aiding citizens getting on and off the tram. The outside of the tram is colored Forwardist colors, bright yellow and neon green. In the background of the panel, the road leading to the tram stop and beyond has a person driving up on a moped. Behind them, the road forks off in two directions to allow easy circumnavigation through the community. There are some buildings in the background, buffered by dominantly-coniferous forest on both sides of the road, with more forest beyond the buildings in the background. The sun is rising behind it all, painting the sky with rich, vibrant colors like orange, magenta, and purple. Panel 5: Kelsie is approaching the door to enter the tram, where she's greeted by a social worker (wearing the traditional social-worker vest, colored yellow after the logo of the social worker's union. Beneath the vest the social worker is wearing a brightly-colored ensemble with a range of violets and cyans, including a purple hat with a symbol of the tram on it. Another person is walking onto the tram with his hand on the tram entryway's support railing. Kelsie is shown stretching her arm across her chest, and the purse Kelsie was shown holding before is now tucked away in her back pocket. Panel 6: This panel is zoomed out to show the tram as it makes its way down a track, through a switch-point where tracks leading off in three different directions come together. At the center is a station with large arrows that illuminate according to which direction the tracks are switched to; the tram is currently on the tracks leading to the right, as indicated by the central station. The tram, now fully visible from a side-angle, has windows lining it, with doors at both the front and the back of it. On the side of the tram, a bicycle is hooked onto a bike- mount where citizens who want to bring a bike along on their tram ride can store it. In the background, the buildings previously shown in the far distance are now close up. One is a photo-electric plant with solar panels on top of it, lined up to face the sun. Beside this building is a building housing a nuclear power generation facility.