The Community, Issue 7: Part 2.2

Page 165 Panel 1: We jump to a week later; the two women are standing in the middle of a bedroom somewhere. Celia looks on at her crisp tux with the slick dark trousers, slightly impressed by the feel of her dress that sits comfortably on her muscular frame. Jesminder is wearing a longer brown silk dress with heels; the purse sitting between the two of them.

Caption

A Week Later- the house of Eli Stone, CEO of Stone Aeronautics

CELIA

(to Jesminder) Normally, I don't go for the girly stuff. But- really digging the look!

JESMINDER

(explanatory, to Celia) Thanks. Clothing manifestation was one of the first spells I had a handle on; saved me a ton of dough in grad school.

CELIA

(Bubble 2) Marta would kill for a spell like that...! Anyway, you sure no one's gonna spot you here? I mean, you were just chatting up one of the buyers a few nights ago.

JESMINDER

(Bubble 2) It's a Christmas party. Odds are most everyon here are too drunk to notice. And if they're not...

Panel 2: Cut to a shot of the hallway just in front of the door to the room they're seated in. Bumping out from inside- at least to the ears of the partygoer moving to the bathroom- is a little post-hypnotic suggestion bubbling from the door.

Caption

(Cont., Jesminder)

"I prepared accordingly."

DOOR

(singing) Come they told me Pa rum pum pum pum A new born king to see Pa rum pum pum pum...

Panel 3: Back to the two women a few moments after the end of the action from Panel 1. You can see the two of them are now firmly ready for action.

JESMINDER

(quizzing) Now. What's your job as I'm schmoozing around?

CELIA

(excited) Humiliate incognito the worst offender at this party. And when you're done, I knock out the power and we split out the back door--

Panel 4: A split second later, a massive light saber emerges from the bottomless purse drifting- unactivated- in the direction of the young woman's hand.

Panel 5: A few moments later, we see said device locked firmly in her hands; the bright green beam shooting out from within.

CELIA

(Cont.) --using this!

(Bubble 2) Should I ask why you have a lightsaber in your purse? Or just assume it's macho English pig men?

Panel 6: Cut to a shot of Ms. Gupta, flashing an ear-to-ear smirk that belies the answer to her question from within.

CELIA

(Off-Panel) Thought so. No shade- I'd do the same thing with your magic. Anyway, best of luck, bruxa...

Page 166

Panel 1: Action shot of the young/old woman walking down the staircase to formally join the party a short time later; her purse calmly wrapped over her shoulder.

Caption

(Cont., Celia)

"Have fun playing around with the wrinkled meat sacks that (annoyingly) run the planet...!"

Panel 2: Jesminder strolls over to the main ballroom area a short time later; her game face firmly on her face. From off-panel right, you can hear what appears to be Christmas music coming from a small orchestra.

JESMINDER

(thought bubble) Alright...showtime, gadhe!​

Panel 3: A two-part set of panels that make up two halves of the same party atmosphere; the partygoers majority male, old and dressed in equally fine couture. Over the tops of some of the heads in the party are descriptors of their individual emotional states: "nervous," "drunk," "depressed."

Panel 4: In the second half, we see the same template of design down to the individual emotional descriptors. Here those in view are "delusional," "overcompensating," and "overthinking." There is one near the top right of the panel that catches her eye; "confident."

JESMINDER

(Off-Panel) And we've got our first potential mark...

Panel 5: Close-up on the person in question- MAXINE ARIANS, head of PR at KillianTech. She's chatting it up with a couple of older execs over bottomless drinks. You can partially see Jesminder in the background moving in that direction.

MAXINE

(to the execs) Where we got lucky, compared to other firms in the pandemic, was that we were already building a new personalized health algorithm that was easily grooved into the government's national contact tracing program.

OLD EXEC

(knowing, to Maxine) Didn't hurt that you took out a couple of your main competitors along the way.

MAXINE

(chuckles, Bubble 2) True true...!

Panel 6: Same setting/layout as the previous panel. A few moments later, we see Ms. Gupta slipping into the proverbial circle of conversation; her eyes pierced squarely in Ms. Arians' direction.

JESMINDER

(fangirl, to Maxine) OMG- the Maxine Arians! I'm a huge fan...