Tell Me Where to Go
Title: Tell Me Where to Go
(A man in a hooded jacket reads a book.)
3 panels organized in 1 column.
Panel 1
(An insect-man bites into a leg of meat, sitting at a table with a mug of beer and an overturned bottle, while kicking away a man with an axe.)
[Narration: The search for the Mirror is painful.]
Panel 2
(An insect-woman smiles at the insect-baby she's holding while pushing away a uniformed man with a gun.)
[Narration: Each time you are rejected . . .]
Panel 3
(A newly married insect couple smiles at a photographer while the female member of the couple kicks away a man with a gun.)
[Narration: . . .You lose a bar on your life meter.]
3 panels organized in 1 column.
Panel 1
(A creature looks at a cell phone while holding up his other hand in front of a sweating person holding a knife.)
[Narration: The Mirror is foggy. You can’t see anything.]
Panel 2
(An insect-man looks at his phone while waving off a man standing behind him holding a camcorder.)
Insect Man: Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope! Nope! Nope!
Panel 3
(A man in a hooded jacket hangs his head in despair.)
[Narration: The hardest war is the one the enemy doesn't even know is happening. A passionate, one-sided fight. An unrequited war.]
[Caption: The search for the Mirror is one failure after another. Morale drops among the crew.]
2 panels divided diagonally across the page.
Panel 1
(Three armed men, one with glasses, one wearing a hood, and one with a walkie-talkie, crouch behind a wall topped with barbed wire.)
Hooded man: Recon team status report?
Man with walkie-talkie: They’re standing by. Launch operation?
[Narration: You are an animal. You are not a plant. Stop trying to fix all your problems in the same place you were born.]
Panel 2
(Beside another wall with metal spikes on top, a man wearing a mask that reads “Carl Schmitt” throws a stick of dynamite while his companion holds a gun.)
Masked man: Go! Throw the smoke bombs!
[Captions: The captain dispatches the recon team to the embassy of Country 49, but expectations are low. His only hope is that they make it out without any major injuries.]
1 panel fills the page.
(The masked man and the armed woman crouch beside a wall with metal spikes on top, marked “Embassy of.” The rest of the sign is blocked by speech bubbles.)
Masked man: I see a gap in the blockade! Cover me! I’m going in!
[Narration: You’re a born stranger. You’ll feel out of place in every country. But if you find yourself in a country that’s killing you, then that’s the country that will kill you. Run for your life.]
1 panel fills the page.
(An enormous cockroach in uniform stands outside a maze marked “Immigration Visa.” He sends an electric shock down to the masked man and armed woman, who join a line of people crawling between the cockroach’s legs into the maze.)
Cockroach: Down! Heads down! Single file, maggots! Behave or I won’t process your application! (To the armed woman and masked man) You there!
Armed woman: They caught us!
[Narration: Every country has walls. The essence of a country is its walls, not what lies beyond them.]
3 panels, organized with one wide panel on top and two smaller panels beneath.
Panel 1
(Two large cockroaches guard a room where a man behind a window, who is picking his nose, speaks to insect people applying for visas.)
Cockroach 1 (shaking his fist): Hey! You deaf or something? I’m talking to you! You wanna piece of me?
Insect-man 1 (sweating and trembling): I’m sorry, sir!
Insect-man 2 (kneeling before the man behind the window and holding paperwork): I NEED this visa. Please. Have mercy on me. I beg of you!
Cockroach 2 (waving away applicants): You’re done here. Now scram!
Panel 2
(Several insect people wait in a long line.)
Insect-man 3: Bloodsuckers! My parents had to sell their home for this.
Insect-man 4: Mine too!
Panel 3
(Several insect people in and beside a doorway. Two celebrate while three cry on the ground, and a sixth insect person has hanged himself.)
Happy insect-man 1: Finally! I got it!
Happy insect-man 2: Success! Success!
Sad insect-man 1: *sob* We’re done for!
2 panels divided vertically across the page.
Panel 1
(The masked man and armed woman lead a line of insect people.)
[Narration: Note the wall, the gatekeepers. How they filter out the dregs. How they tame the foreign.]
Armed woman: You can't fail this time.
Masked man: I got this.
Panel 2
(A uniformed cockroach speaks into a walkie-talkie while insect people walk down a hallway labeled “WAIT.”)
[Narration: Do you have the connections? Do you have the capital?]
Cockroach: Number 211! Number 212!
Insect-man 1 (bowing at end of hallway): Good afternoon, sir!
Insect-man 2 (running to end of hallway): Here! Here! Coming!
[Captions: Asylum is all but impossible. It's hard for any Limbo to get a foot in the door of an embassy.]
1 panel fills the page.
[Narration: If you don’t, be bold.]
(The masked man, holding down his mask, speaks to the man behind the window, which has discarded paperwork on the floor in front of it.)
Masked man: I don't have the required documents because I'm not a regular visa applicant. I am applying for asylum in Country 49. My basic rights of political freedom, financial security, cultural determination, freedom of thought and sensibility are under attack in Country 82. I hereby request protection. For your reference, international law dictates that all countries have the duty to protect asylum seekers . . .
1 panel divided across two pages; left side of the panel.
(The masked man staggers back under a torrent of violent words.)
1 panel divided across two pages; right side of the panel.
(The man behind the window, sitting in an office chair with the jaws of a crocodile around his body, releases more violent words toward the masked man.)
1 panel fills the page.
(Aerial view of the man behind the window, with a forked tongue, reaching through the window toward the masked man and armed woman with a giant rubber stamp labeled “REJECTED.” The stamp lands on the masked man’s face.)
[Narration: Why hasn’t anyone invented a country for those who don’t belong anywhere?]
2 panels divided diagonally across the page.
Panel 1
(View of the masked man’s face, now disfigured by the “REJECTED” stamp.)
Panel 2
(The masked man lies on the ground, tended to by a paramedic, the armed woman, and the hooded man.)
[Narration: No country welcomes the maladjusted. The only way to prove yourself worthy is to show proof of (above average) income, proof of affiliation (to an officially recognized organization), or proof of (extraordinary) influence.]
Hooded man: Mission abort! Retreat!
[Narration: What are the odds that those who belong nowhere will acquire even one of these?]
[Narration: Extremely slim.]
1 panel divided across two pages; left side of the panel.
(Map of the western hemisphere with numbered countries. North America is 1 and Central and South America are 50s and 500s.)
[Caption: LIMBO ASYLUM GUIDE]
[Narration: Limbos are often paralyzed with lethargy and self-defeat. Marginalized in a crowded world that they are forced to participate in, they wallow in their aloneness. But people are animals, not plants. And animals never stay in the same place.]
[Narration: It stands to reason that a cornered being will seek to broaden its territory. Of course, any attempt to fight in Country 82, which has been overrun with Roaches, would be suicide. But if a Limbo can make it out of that brutal battlefield alive, then it can overcome any hardship. Country 82 is, in fact, the ultimate training ground.]
[Narration: But things are no better outside Country 82. Country 82 is not the only country ruled by Roaches, and no country in the world welcomes Limbos. That's why you must strategize. You have to calculate the infinitesimal range of possibility that lies in the slight differences between countries and throw yourself into that gap. The number one destinations for asylum are the 20s and 200s; number two, the 50s and 500s; number three, the 30s and 40s. There is no hope anywhere else. Country 1, Country 44, and all of the 80s must be avoided at any cost. These countries have been completely obliterated by Roaches. They've gone to the dogs. They can't be saved.]
1 panel divided across two pages; right side of the panel.
(Map of the eastern hemisphere with numbered countries. Russia and Kazakhstan are 7, Africa is 20s and 200s, Eastern and Western Europe are 30s and 40s, Central, South, and East Asia are 80s, 90s, 800s, and 900s, and Oceania is 60s and 600s.)
[Narration: The best country is any one where you can blend into the crowd, where the racial features of foreigners are less conspicuous. (e.g. You can barely do anything in Country 90 because of the way they love to stare at foreigners.) Given this, Country 7 and Country 81 are good, but expectoration frequency and average noise level is too high in Country 7, and the high cost of living and reclusiveness inherent to island countries makes Country 81 unwelcome.]
[Narration: We have received intelligence that the low 40s countries are experiencing rapid Cockroachification. We must expedite our research on the 90s countries to prepare for this eventuality.]