Rock The Vouhhhnn!, Chapter 7: Part 1.1
Page 153 (Chapter 7, Page 1)
Panel 1: A full-page panel that is made to look like a line graph detailing a daily poll on the race conducted by the Lawrenceburg Herald Tribune; Skelton’s data in blue, and Rep. Jenkins in red. You can clearly see a tightening of the race as it moves from left to right, from 7/17 (where we ended Chapter 6) to 8/8 (where Chapter 7 will begin).
Caption
(Madison, in narration mode) “It started after the interview with a pretty simple hashtag- #DeadOn. The originator: some girl going to Ohio Southern, but who lives in the district. She said it was inspired by something we said on hospital care reform. I meant to say “head on,” but the auto-correct switched it to “dead” and she was already off to another question before I could correct it.”
Caption (Cont., Madison)
“Anyway, from there, it snowballed into this sea of memes and TikToks and long thinkpieces of people really discovering our platform for the first time. And the usual putzes crying doom and pessimistic gloom. But the effect was all the same- the Highway 9 tragedy faded into the background. The money rush became a steady stream, along with the number of volunteers for the campaign, even though the polls were still solidly not in our favor.”
Caption
(Cont., Madison)
“Then came the Disaster on Schumer Bay…”
Page 154 (Chapter 7, Page 2)
Panel 1: We move to a shot of a tiered farm located on the coast of Manhattan; the sight of clouds and a bit of blue sky in the top right corner of the panel view. You can see an explosion covered on the top section of the farm.
Caption
(Cont., Madison)
“It’s one of those tiered farms just off Manhattan. There was a leak on one of the methane tanks that act as a secondary power source for the farm. It was designed with a redundancy that was supposed to kick in whenever one of these leaks occurred. Unfortunately, it failed and the resulting sparks…”
Panel 2: Cut to a shot of the street just outside of the building, which is now on fire, minutes later. There are a contingent of firemen attacking the fire with a clear blue water-like solution to fight the fire. You can also see a drone in the top section of the panel shooting another stream of the same solution at it.
Caption (Cont., Madison) “At first, it was strictly a New York-centered tragedy. But then, a few days later, news came out that the backup system at the Schumer Bay farm was scheduled for an update years ago. The reason that didn’t happen? Budget cuts at the FDA spearheaded by the one and only Rep. Jenkins!”
Panel 3: We move to a shot of the aforementioned Rep. Jenkins in the hallway somewhere in the House of Representatives surrounded by a grouping of political reporters that surrounded the background of the panel.
Caption
(Cont., Madison)
“I started to feel that little glimmer of hope in my heart that this would be the moment we’d overtake him. But as Uncle Brock used to tell me- ‘hope without concrete support is just piss on tape delay.’”
Panel 4: We move to a side shot of the group moving down the hallway; a stream of sharp question marks coming from each of the individual reporters, trying to strike the Congressman but only bouncing off by an invisible force field protecting him.
Caption (Cont., Madison) “Crude, and...pretty accurate more often than not.”
Panel 5: A short time later, we see Kanna stand like a bodyguard right outside the office door, barking out to the collected members of the press. You can see the same stream of sharp question marks coming from off-panel trying to hit him to no avail.
KANNA
(to the Press scrum)
I know you guys are itching for your usual pound of flesh. But I promise- the Congressman will answer any and all questions about Schumer Bay by the end of the week.