City Series:Volume7a Chapter3
Chapter 3: Comicalize[edit]
2000 autumn
Page 1[edit]
- Rest time
[Sarah and Beretta at the office drying off with a towel and a heater]
In the US, the hurricanes hit San Francisco first.
With the seasons changing and fall approaching, the City Hall’s Health Department is getting busy. Our job is to redraw the city to its original state, cleaning it up.
I guess you could say we return the city to its proper form. Today’s job is repairing the girders for the elevated highway. The Lives went wild partway through, creating a big bird and a commotion.
“Haven’t the ley lines been awfully disturbed lately?” I note on my way back to the office where the Health Department is abuzz with energy. We’re already discussing tomorrow morning.
A hurricane makes landfall tonight. The rain is already blowing against the windows.
I dry my hair and use a heater before dozing off a little.
Page 2[edit]
- Up
After sleeping for about 2 hours, I wake up to find only Beretta is still around.
[Extreme close up of Beretta]
- Middle
Beretta looks unusually large while balling up paper and playing with it on my desk.
[Beretta plays with a ball of paper]
I have a very bad feeling about this and then a fist strikes my low blood pressure head.
- Long
[A fist hits Sarah’s head. Beretta looks confused]
For some reason, strange sparks leave my head.
That normally wouldn’t happen.
Which can only mean…
Page 3[edit]
- Comical Taste
I turned into a comic while I slept!?
[A more cartoony Sarah stares in shock at her reflection in the window]
The City Hall is entirely silent. I look out the window and see only a few lights on in the storehouse across the way. My reflection in the rainy window shows I have cartoony proportions. Who the heck redrew my art style?
It is currently 10 PM. I hurry back to my room and grab Halifax, but it’s still in a realistic style. I head out into the city, dragging along Beretta who is now the size of a large dog relative to my size.
Page 4[edit]
- Run to Colleagues
The city is full of evacuating people. They are moving quickly on the guidance of the authorities.
[Cartoony Sarah asks a man where to go and runs toward the clocktower tree.]
But where is everyone? That thought causes a crudely drawn question mark to appear over my head. That makes me look dumb, so I ask someone from the Yard where to go.
“The base of that big cherry tree was designated a shelter. You should check there first.”
Okay, let’s get going.
Page 5[edit]
- Peep into a Floor
It’s already 2 AM.
[Cartoony Sarah peers down over the edge of the panel]
In the rain and wind, I dive down through the skylight and find the clocktower is really busy.
The broadcast department is hooking up a bunch of machines and cords to Le Artemis.
- Welcome
They’re probably amplifying the city broadcasts with the harp to use this place as a central broadcast station.
Bendaughter walks over with some drinks and hands me a coffee and something to eat.
“Even sounds can be drawn in this city, so they say the plan is to remake the amplifier into a virtual Grid Seeker launcher and use its sound to make the images.”
I see. All I got from that was it’s too complicated for someone as dumb as me to understand.
[Bendaughter carries a tray full of drinks with an overhead view of the crowded clocktower interior as the background]
Beretta circles behind Bendaughter.
Lightning strikes immediately afterwards.
Page 6[edit]
- Dash
Oh, no. What happens to the broadcast equipment if lightning hits the tree trunk?
And I think I’m the only one who can protect it.
[Sarah’s silhouette runs through the rain and lightning]
- Tenacity
But the realistic Halifax is too heavy for me right now.
Nevertheless, I work hard until lightning appears in the sky overhead.
[Cartoony Sarah struggles to fly with Halifax]
- A Surprise Attack
My life flashes before my eyes.
My past memories are crystal clear in my head.
So many wonderful memories.
[Cartoony Sarah holds a cartoony hand to her lips]
- Cup Nooooodle!!
Yes, like the flavor of the cup noodles I was eating earlier.
Goooodbyyyyyeeee!
[Cartoony Sarah weeps while picturing the steaming cup of noodles]
Page 7[edit]
- Dislord
Someone’s drawing saves me from cup noodle death.
I open my eyes to see Singlehorn, the Dislord Health Department Chief.
“Why are you here instead of doing your job, Sarah?”
My job? What job?
“Fool. Don’t you realize your current art style means a lightning strike would only show your skeleton for a moment? Our entire department was redrawn in the same style and sent out into the sky to assist you.”
[Singlehorn glares down at Sarah with lightning striking in the background]
Then he hands me a stronger version of Halifax.
“Why did you leave while I was in the storehouse retrieving this? I left you a note saying to stay put.”
Yeah, well, I didn’t see it, okay? But he had modified Halifax and explained the situation to me. Simply put, I’m supposed to summon the morning.
Page 8[edit]
- Get Ready
- Singlehorn
Everything’s ready.
Le Artemis and Halifax are connected with a cable and boosted. Everyone is singing.
[Close up of Singlehorn’s face]
- Piping
[Close up of the cable connection]
- Teammate
[Coworkers smile and give a thumbs up]
[Cartoony Sarah stands confidently with Halifax in hand and Bendaughter sits at Le Artemis]
Time to go!
Page 9-10[edit]
- Draw Cool Night
Bendaughter makes it sound so simple.
“Okay, take care of the sky for us.”
And how can I say no to her?
I open my cutely-drawn wings in the blowing wind.
I fly through the wind and rain to join my winged colleagues drawn in the same art style.
Then I take my position at the very top.
I hear Bendaughter’s morning song through Halifax.
“Okay, let’s get this done quick.”
[Cartoony Sarah uses Halifax to draw away the storm. Other winged workers do the same in the background]
We attack the night!
Page 11[edit]
- Appreciation
We all celebrate in the late summer sun the next day.
Singlehorn still insists he left me a note.
“I swear there wasn’t a note when I woke up.”
I turn to Beretta for confirmation.
“Right?”
[Normal Sarah wears a swimsuit and speaks with Singlehorn on the beach]
- Memo
I see Beretta pull a paper ball out of my coat pocket and start playing with it.
Don’t tell me…
[Sarah sees Beretta holding a paper ball]
Page 12[edit]
- Sightseeing
A pet’s mistake is the owner’s responsibility, so I was made cartoony again. Everyone played with me before throwing me into the ocean.
- Puffing at Sea
[Cartoony swimsuit Beretta floats in the water with swirly eyes while her non-cartoony friends watch]
“Don’t worry. You won’t sink with that art style.”
That’s not the issue here, you know?
Why do these things always happen to me?
The end of image.
Finish
Kawa-Commentary[edit]
Chapter 3: Comicalize
- General
In America, the hurricanes apparently actually come from Mexico. It’s starting to be a problem in Japan too, but paved areas with large elevation differences will have all the water flow downhill when it rains, flooding the lower areas. I wonder if they have that issue in SF.
This chapter showed the City Hall and more of how Sarah lives her life.
- Page 1
Sarah’s workplace. There is a whiteboard on the other wall covered in printouts of typhoon countermeasures and listing each worker’s post.
Compared to before (Ch. 1), the monitor is now flatscreen and LCD. The desks are for work, so they have a slanted portion with a stopper at the corners to keep equipment from falling off. It’s hard to tell with Sarah in the way, but there is a cardboard box under the desk with a 16-bit system, a basketball, and other things inside. Those are cleaned up in Ch. 5.
- Page 2
The top of Sarah’s desk, but there are bottlecap figures in front of the bookend. The idea is they’re from a series called the Dark Dance Showa Series and she is only missing Gachon out of the four rare ones: Gachon, Comanche, Nanchatte, and Sheeh.
- Page 3
The building visible past Sarah’s reflection in the window is the storehouse. See the lights on there? Singlehorn might just be in there searching for Halifax’s upgrade parts after leaving Sarah a note.
- Page 4
Originally, Sarah’s eyes had much bigger highlights, which made her look like a frog. The two lines Sarah travels along on the ground in the middle are a cable car track.
- Page 5
A view from above the hangar. Benny covers them up, but the normally hidden guiderails and such can be removed from the base and brought to the door. The turntable is meant to hold things in place during modification and can’t be removed. Going clockwise, the personnel distribution inside the room is the supplies (food, etc.) on the upper right, meetings and planning on the right, an audio booster using a b6809 generator on the bottom right and bottom left, materials on the left, and a break area on the upper left. Each area has a whiteboard set up to check the progress of the work and provide a map.
The things gathered around at the center of the room are sound boards and Benny’s personal things are piled up in front of the board on the upper left.
- Pages 6-7
Not much to say here.
- Page 8
The IZUMO name can be seen on Benny’s upgrade parts, but the idea is that IZUMO does built-to-order manufacturing of strengthened versions of existing parts. They are powerful since they come from Japan, the home of Rhythms, but they aren’t custom parts and can thus be attached with work like that seen on page 5. The same is done for Sarah’s Halifax, but it still needs to be reinforced with some tape.
- Pages 9-10
The hilly city in the background has some pretty large elevation differences.
The writing on the tape for Sarah’s spray gun tank says “FINE!”.
- Page 11
Not much to say here, but Singlehorn’s front arms come from the front of his sides, so they aren’t always visible in this kind of pose.
- Page 12
Not much to say here either.
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