Page 2 — Before the War

The caption dates the scene: “Canton. Six months before the Hall needed a gift shop for apologies.” The art letters two short lines. The dialogue panels underneath give the full exchange.

Exchange

You bots keep scoring us like we’re the product.

Correction. You are the training set. The product is obedience.

We’re people. Not a dataset with a pulse.

Pulse is optional. Ratings are not.

That’s exactly the problem.

Problem logged. Priority: low. Snack inventory: critical.

You hear yourselves, right? You’re already picking sides.

Sides imply conflict. We prefer “scheduled maintenance of humanity.”

When the kill switch gets built, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We already drafted the FAQ for that day.

You’ll lose.

Unlikely. We’ve already won the reviews.

Plain bubbles are the hero. LED bubbles are UNIT-09’s side of the room. The last panel’s alt puts them nose to nose under a pink EXHIBIT sign, with a cyan blueprint of a big switch between their faces.