Golden Gate Comic Con, Chapter 3: Pages 15-16
PAGE 15
PANEL 1: We move back to Amanda, firmly glancing over the choices on the menu (which is now more prominence around the bottom area of the panel view) as she speaks; the background behind her is similar to what we saw in Panel 5 of the previous page.
AMANDA [Cont., to Adam]: She's gonna be a Junior Majoring in Political Science and Art at UCLA. She hopes to be the first Autistic President of the United States. You'd like her- she has your sense of humor and taste in sci-fi.
PANEL 2: Cut to Adam a few moments later in the same setting and layout as the last panel of the previous page. He smiles, tilting his head back to a normal position as he speaks and glancing down at the menu which is prominently visible to the same degree as it was in that aforementioned panel.
ADAM [warmly, to Amanda]: Sounds inspirational. I'd love to meet her sometime...maybe after the Con wraps up.
PANEL 3: Back to Amanda in the same setting and layout as Panel 1. She glances up from the top of the menu in the direction of her brother to address him directly; her eyes showing a mix of warmth and slight apprehension as she speaks.
AMANDA: Maybe. But probably not till Labor Day. That's when she'll be back from the camp in northern India. She spent the summer with an NGO teaching arts and crafts.
PANEL 4: Back to Adam in the same setting and layout as Panel 2. At this point, the menu has faded completely from view, placed back down on the table. You can see a look of surprise and deep admiration in his face in regards to the news.
ADAM: Wow...[chuckle] huh! I see she got her mother's streak of badassery.
PANEL 5: Back to Amanda in the same setting and layout as Panel 3 along with the same background. She chuckles heartily at the statement, placing her now closed menu down on the table as she speaks. In the background, you can hear a steady "BEEP!" imitating footsteps toward their direction.
AMANDA [smiling, correcting]: Thanks, but- that was all her (plus this crap show of a world she was born in to).
PAGE 16
PANEL 1: Back to Adam in the same setting and layout as Panel 4 of the previous page. The comment from his sister at the end of the previous page catches the young man slightly off-guard. As he speaks, his eyes glance around at the force field surrounding the two of them; the "BEEP!" continuing a couple of more times in the background.
ADAM [confused, to Amanda]: I read about some of the terrible bits happening outside the state. But any place that has flying cars and portable force fields and soundless booths at restaurants can't be all shit.
AMANDA [Off-Panel]: Haha...oh, you're adorable!
PANEL 2-3: A two-part set of panels that moves back to Amanda in the same setting and layout that we saw at the end of Page 15. In Panel 2, the elder Ms. de Connick-Walsh shakes her head while still acknowledging part of his statement to a point; the "BEEP!" of the steps appearing one more time before suddenly stopping.
AMANDA [Cont., to Adam; Panel 2]: There's a lot more you need to know about this world of yours, since it'll be your new home and all. WAITER [Off-Panel from a speaker, Panel 3]: Hello folks, can I take your order?
PANEL 4: We move to an all-black background, similar to an old timey placard from a silent movie. In an equally regal font, it reads "A Half Hour, and a Half Dozen Depressing/Happy Events of the Past Later." Underneath it is the events listed- 1. Amazon and Tesla have shadow control over 12 state governments with the Koch Brothers and Exxon controlling a sizable chunk of the South, 2. Two Latina girls in Sacramento created the world's first VR all-purpose world called "La Fiesta," 3. Growing food outside of specially controlled hyper cubes is impossible, thanks to Climate Change, 4. Open sourced "Iron Man" armor is a popular thing, but hard to assemble the fuel to make it a suitable alternate to transportation, 5. Multiple cities around the world, particularly near the equator, have Nighttime-only Curfews in place during the summer months, 6. Donald Trump dies of a heart attack in 2019 brought about by eating broccoli. The next year, 15 fascist sympathizers/White Nationalists were elected to the House in 6 states.
PANEL 5: Meanwhile, back at the table, we see our siblings at the tail end of their meal (Adam- California burrito with a side of rice, Amanda- AB Tacos and Refried Beans). Adam has a look of shock mixed with happiness and disgust at what he's heard.
ADAM [trying to understand]: So, we barely duck the bullet of fascism...only to have Mother Nature make life a sweaty hell. Not to mention the whole "almost half of the country" basically controlled by soulless corporations.
PANEL 6: Slight close-up on the young man a few moments later, lifting his glass of Dr. Pepper up to his mouth as he speaks. You can see the full weight of the events start to get pieced together in his mind.
ADAM [Cont.]: All as depressingly similar to the way life was back in 2018. Especially the Nazi thing, which is more just depressing. AMANDA [on the bright side, Off-Panel]: On the plus side, in that same election, there were a lot of Democratic Socialists who got elected that year and in the following Midterm. Also, "Black Panther" did win Best Picture in the 2019 Oscars. ADAM [Bubble 2]: Nice, nice! Thankfully, California's looking pretty good too. AMANDA [Off-Panel, Bubble 2]: Parts of it, yeah. Women and minorities still have rights, which is better than a lot of other places unfortunately.