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Issue 10 · Print view

AIN'T NO STOPPING

18 pages · 62 panels

Recap Splash · 1 panel

Page 1/ 18

Layout — Recap splash

[art pending]

A close-up of the wreckage of the old green guitar in the new-2260 lawn. The body's broken halves. The snapped headstock. A single string spiraled in the grass. Alex's hand picking up a fragment of the pickguard with the wave-symbol inlay still intact.

Page · 4 panels

Page 2/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

The kitchen of Alex's house. Sun through the window. Coffee. The smell of toast. The three of them — Alex, Jesse, Dev — at a small table covered with a checkered cloth. The kitchen is full of small things: a portable bluetooth speaker playing a Hendrix record, a stack of new vinyl by the back door, framed concert posters on the wall, a guitar leaning against a bookshelf in the next room. Allred — pack the panel with evidence of music.

  • ALEXDrink the coffee. Both of you. You look like you got hit by a comet.
  • DEVWe did.
  • ALEXI know. That's why I made coffee.

[art pending]

Jesse, his cup untouched. He cannot stop looking at his father across the table.

  • JESSEDad.
  • JESSEHow are you here.
  • JESSEYou died.
  • JESSEIn our 2244 you died.

[art pending]

Alex sets down his cup. Composed. He has been preparing this answer for a very long time.

  • ALEXIn your 2244, I died.
  • ALEXIn this 2244, I retired from a desk job. Marisol made me a cake. The boys came home.
  • ALEXYour 2244 was the timeline before the Vegas show changed history.
  • ALEXWhen you played in 2026, every event downstream of that night recomposed.
  • ALEXDeciCorp didn't become a monopoly because forty kids in a living room recorded a band that shouldn't have existed and uploaded it.
  • ALEXPeople stopped letting an algorithm tell them what to listen to.
  • ALEXThe Sound Licensing Act never passed. The Quiet Grid was never built. The Spire was never built.
  • ALEXI never had to volunteer to die in a factory to hide a guitar that — in this timeline — was never even buried.

[art pending]

Jesse, very quiet.

  • JESSE…So the dad I grew up without —
  • ALEX— lived a different life.
  • ALEXHe is who I am.
  • ALEXI am sitting across from my sons drinking coffee.
  • ALEXThis is, for me, also a miracle, mijo.

Page · 4 panels

Page 3/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Dev, slowly.

  • DEVWait.
  • DEVWait wait wait.
  • DEVIf the timeline recomposed —
  • DEVThen we shouldn't remember our timeline.
  • DEVWe shouldn't remember the Spire.
  • DEVWe shouldn't remember the Quiet Grid.
  • DEVWe should just remember… this one.

[art pending]

Alex, nodding. This is a question he was hoping for. He likes Dev.

  • ALEXYou're right, Dev.
  • ALEXFor anyone else on the planet — the old timeline is gone. They have always lived in this one. They have no memory of the other.
  • ALEXBut the chord-jumpers — you, Dev — anybody who has traveled through a portal — your memory is anchored to the timeline you came from.
  • ALEXThat's the price of the trick. You see what nobody else can see.
  • ALEXThat is what makes you the resistance even when there's no longer anything to resist.

[art pending]

Jesse, processing.

  • JESSE…So Mom.
  • JESSEIn this timeline.
  • JESSEMom never lost her husband.
  • ALEXNo.
  • JESSEShe never watched her sons cry in their sleep for sixteen years.
  • ALEXNo.
  • JESSEBut the Mom we know — the one in our 2260 —
  • ALEXIs still there.
  • ALEXShe's in the kitchen on Vargas Drive.
  • ALEXShe's been there the whole time.

[art pending]

Long beat. Allred — Jesse processing. His face. The realization that the mother he left behind is still in the bad timeline — and that the dad he just found is not the dad who would be waiting for her at home if they brought him.

  • JESSEDad.
  • JESSEWe have to go back.
  • JESSEMom is alone.
  • JESSEWe left her this morning.

Page · 3 panels

Page 4/ 18

Layout — 3 panels — widescreens

[art pending]

Alex, gently.

  • ALEXI know, mijo.
  • ALEXI have a Marisol too.
  • ALEXShe's at the salon she runs on Tropicana. She'll be home at six. You will meet her. She will not remember either of you. She will think you are her husband's nephews visiting from Phoenix. And she will feed you.
  • ALEXShe will not be your mother.
  • ALEXShe will be a Marisol who got the better life.
  • ALEXBut your Marisol is also still alive — in your timeline — and she is waiting for you.

[art pending]

Jesse, eyes wet.

  • JESSEWe have to bring her this.
  • JESSEWe have to bring her this 2260.
  • JESSEA Vegas with music in it. A Vegas with my dad in it.
  • JESSEShe deserves it. Dev deserves it. I deserve it.
  • ALEX…
  • ALEXYou can't bring her this, Jesse.
  • ALEXYou can bring her your version of it.
  • ALEXYou can go home and finish what you started.
  • ALEXYou played in 2026. That changed the past.
  • ALEXYou haven't played 2260 yet.
  • ALEXYou haven't played your own time.

[art pending]

Alex, very quiet now.

  • ALEXThat show — that's the one that changes your present.
  • ALEXNot the past. The present.
  • ALEXThe one where your mother is.

Page · 5 panels

Page 5/ 18

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

Dev, leaning back in his chair.

  • DEV…Alex.
  • DEVHow do we play 2260 if we don't have a guitar.
  • ALEX…
  • ALEXCome with me. Both of you.
  • ALEXBring your coffee.

[art pending]

The three of them walking out through the back door. Into the backyard.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

The backyard. A converted detached structure — a workshop. Bigger than the garage on Vargas Drive. More tools. A clear glass wall. A pegboard of saws and clamps. Wood drying in a rack along one wall. Three half-finished guitars on workbenches.

  • DEV…Alex.
  • ALEXI've had a hobby.

[art pending]

Jesse, walking through the workshop, hand brushing across the half-finished guitars on the benches.

  • JESSEYou build them now.
  • ALEXI build them now.
  • ALEXI started after I retired. I had time. I had the schematics from your great-great-grandfather's notebooks. I have always known how.
  • ALEXI just couldn't do it when DeciCorp was watching.
  • ALEXIn this timeline — there's no DeciCorp.
  • ALEXSo I build.

[art pending]

Alex crosses to a small back room of the workshop. Opens the door. Walks in. Comes back out carrying — held flat across both forearms, the way a butler carries a folded coat — a brand-new green guitar.

  • No copy.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 6/ 18

Layout — Splash

[art pending]

The new green guitar. Alex, in the workshop doorway, presenting the new green guitar across both arms. The instrument is gorgeous — the same offset Jazzmaster-Mustang silhouette as the old one. The same hand-rubbed nitrocellulose green. The same bare-bobbin alnico pickups. The same wave-symbol inlay on the pickguard. But — brand new. Unworn. Unscarred. The strings shining. The fretboard fresh. The headstock unbroken. Behind Alex on the workshop wall, just visible — a framed black-and-white photograph: a young Jesse and a young Dev as kids, with a young Alex, all three holding small homemade instruments. A family band photo nobody from the old timeline has ever seen. Allred — Romantic register meeting Cosmic. The new green guitar is the same icon but new. The reader's heart should jump.

Page · 4 panels

Page 7/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Jesse, staring. His face is open. His hands rise from his sides — automatic, the muscles remembering the shape of his old guitar.

  • JESSEDad.
  • JESSEI broke yours.
  • ALEXYou broke the first one, mijo.
  • ALEXThis is the seventh.
  • ALEXI've been getting better.

[art pending]

Alex steps forward. He extends the guitar to Jesse. Jesse takes it. He cradles it the way he cradled the old one in Issue 2.

  • JESSE…It's the same.
  • ALEXIt is and it isn't.
  • ALEXThe pickups are a new alloy. The original cerium-iron-boron was banned in your time — but in this one I had thirty years to work with the local mining licenses. The new alloy is cleaner. The harmonics are stronger. The portal will open wider.
  • ALEXPlus this one is in tune.
  • JESSEThe old one was in tune.
  • ALEXI'm pleased to hear it.

[art pending]

Dev, behind Jesse, looking at the new guitar with the same awe.

  • DEVAlex.
  • DEVThe USB.
  • DEVDoes the new pickup still respond to the old USB?
  • ALEXBetter than the old pickup did.
  • ALEXPlug it in. You'll feel it.

[art pending]

Dev pulls the USB from his jacket pocket. Holds it up. The chip catches the workshop light. Faintly glowing green. Like it knows.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 8/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

The three of them at a workbench. Alex's home Amp-Sim — much more refined than Dev's Mark IV — set up between them. Alex plugs the USB into the home rig. The new green guitar is plugged in. Jesse runs his hand across the strings without striking — testing the action, the response, the weight.

  • JESSE…Dad.
  • JESSEThis is the best guitar I've ever held.
  • ALEXI know, mijo.
  • ALEXI built it for you.

[art pending]

Jesse, very small.

  • JESSEI love you.
  • ALEXI love you too.
  • ALEXBoth of you.

[art pending]

Dev, who has been quiet, beside them. Watching this. Allred — Dev's face. The brother who wasn't born to this man getting watched by him with the same love. Slow it.

  • ALEXHey, Dev.
  • DEVYeah.
  • ALEXWhen you build your next Amp-Sim — and you will — I have some notes.
  • DEV(small smile)Yes sir.

[art pending]

Alex, gently, to both of them.

  • ALEXBoys.
  • ALEXI need to tell you both something.
  • ALEXI am not going home with you.

Page · 4 panels

Page 9/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Long beat. The two of them processing.

  • JESSE…Dad.
  • JESSEWe came all this way.
  • ALEXI know.
  • JESSEWe came for you.
  • ALEXI know, mijo.
  • ALEXAnd I am so proud of you both for it.
  • ALEXBut I am not the dad you lost.
  • ALEXI am the dad who got to live the life he wanted.
  • ALEXIf I go back with you — your mother sees her dead husband walking into her kitchen. She does not get her husband back. She gets a stranger with the same face.
  • ALEXThat is worse for her than nothing.

[art pending]

Jesse, swallowing it. He knows his father is right.

  • JESSE…She will know.
  • ALEXShe will know.
  • ALEXAnd she has already grieved me, mijo.
  • ALEXI will not undo that work for her.

[art pending]

Dev, quietly.

  • DEVAlex.
  • DEVShe misses you.
  • ALEXI miss her too.
  • ALEXTell her — tell her I send my love.
  • ALEXTell her I kept my promise.
  • ALEXShe knows what it means.

[art pending]

Jesse, breaking just a little.

  • JESSEShe made you tell us that last time.
  • ALEXI know. It's still true.
  • ALEXI'm gonna tell her every time you come visit.
  • ALEX(smiling)And I expect you to come visit.
  • ALEXThis is going to be one of two timelines my sons live in now.
  • ALEXPlus the kitchen door is always unlocked. There's always coffee. Always.

Page · 5 panels

Page 10/ 18

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

The afternoon. Alex's living room. Records on the turntable. A small bowl of pretzels. The brothers sitting on the couch, Alex in an armchair across from them. The reader gets a brief tour: posters on the wall (live bands from the last forty years), a kid's drawing on the fridge (a grandchild, this timeline's Dev maybe). Allred — make this room feel like one a guy on vinyl Reddit would post pictures of. Lived-in, curated, beloved.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Alex on the armchair, ankle on knee, holding his coffee.

  • ALEXI want to know everything.
  • ALEXTell me about your 2260.
  • ALEXTell me about your mom. Tell me about your work. Tell me about the garage.
  • ALEXTell me about the band.

[art pending]

Jesse and Dev, taking turns. A small montage panel split into two scenes side-by-side — Dev describing the salvage-yard kit; Jesse describing the bathroom on the 47th floor where his father appeared as a hologram. Allred — pick two iconic images from the earlier issues and rephrase them in this conversation.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Alex, hearing about the hologram visitation.

  • ALEXOh.
  • ALEXOh, mijo. That was me?
  • ALEXI appeared to you?
  • JESSEYeah.
  • ALEX…
  • ALEX(delighted)That is the coolest thing I have ever done.
  • DEVHe hasn't done it in this timeline.
  • ALEX(still delighted)Doesn't matter. I'm taking credit.

[art pending]

The three of them laughing. The first sustained laughter in the issue. Allred — let the panel breathe.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 11/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

6:00 P.M. The kitchen door opens. MARISOL of this timeline enters — same woman, same dark hair pinned up, same reading glasses, but a slightly different face: less tension at the jaw, more sun at the corners of her eyes. She is carrying a bag of groceries.

  • MARISOL-OF-2260-HEREMi amor, who's the —
  • MARISOL-OF-2260-HERE(stopping)…Oh.
  • MARISOL-OF-2260-HERE…Hello.

[art pending]

Alex stands. Crosses to her. Takes the bag. Kisses her on the cheek.

  • ALEXMarisol. These are visitors.
  • ALEXThis is Jesse. This is Dev.
  • ALEXThey are very dear to me.
  • ALEXThey are staying for dinner.

[art pending]

Marisol-of-this-2260 looks at them. She does not recognize them. But her face — Allred, slow it — does something. A sense. A flicker. Mothers know.

  • MARISOL…You both have the look of family.
  • MARISOLDid Alex's brother send you.
  • JESSE(quick)Yes ma'am.
  • MARISOLHe's incorrigible. He always sends nephews unannounced.
  • MARISOL(warm)Sit. Sit. There's plenty.

[art pending]

Jesse, very quiet, looking at his mother who is not his mother.

  • JESSE(whisper, to Alex)…She looks happy.
  • ALEX(whisper back)She is happy.
  • ALEXShe doesn't know what she would have lost.
  • ALEXSometimes that's the gift.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 12/ 18

Layout — Splash

[art pending]

Dinner. The kitchen table. Marisol-of-this-2260 at one end, Alex at the other, Jesse and Dev on the long sides. Plates of food. A small candle. Wine. The new green guitar leaning against the wall in the background — present at dinner, as a member of the family. Music — a real radio, real broadcast, real station — playing softly in the background. A 2260 station playing a 2026 garage band that nobody in this timeline knows is the same band currently eating dinner at the table. Allred — Romantic register at its quietest. The good dinner. The reader needs to want to be at this table.

Page · 4 panels

Page 13/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

After dinner. The brothers helping Marisol-of-this-2260 with dishes. She is humming to herself as she works. The reader will recognize: the same melody she sang to Jesse as a baby in the bad timeline. Mothers find their lullabies.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Alex in the doorway, watching this. He has a hand on the doorframe. He is trying not to cry. He has waited fifteen years for this dinner and he didn't know who he was waiting for.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Marisol-of-this-2260, drying her hands.

  • MARISOLBoys. There's a guest room. Take it tonight.
  • JESSEMa'am — we shouldn't —
  • MARISOLYou will. It is not negotiable.
  • MARISOLI'm going to bed. Alex, behave.
  • ALEXAlways.
  • MARISOL(to the brothers)It was good to meet you both.
  • MARISOLTell your father I said hello.

[art pending]

She kisses Alex on the cheek. She walks out of the panel. Jesse, watching her go, his hand on the kitchen counter for support. Allred — let the panel hold. He has just had dinner with a mother who is also not.

  • No copy.

Page · 5 panels

Page 14/ 18

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

Late. The three of them in the workshop. The new green guitar set on a stand on a workbench. The USB plugged into Alex's rig. Alex finalizing the calibration.

  • ALEXAlright.
  • ALEXSame chord as before. Your father's chord. Don't forget it.
  • ALEXThe shuffle is seven over four. Dev. You are the engine.
  • DEVI am the engine.

[art pending]

Alex hands Jesse a small folded paper. Identical to the original chord diagram.

  • ALEXUpdated version. I added the destination harmonic that this timeline's Amp-Sim can lock onto.
  • ALEXIt will land you in your garage. Your real garage. Vargas Drive, 2260, your mom in the kitchen.
  • ALEXWithin a margin of fifteen minutes of when you left.

[art pending]

Jesse, taking the paper, folding it carefully into his jacket pocket. Same pocket as the daisy. Same pocket Dev keeps the original.

  • JESSEDad.
  • ALEXMijo.
  • JESSEAre we going to see you again.
  • ALEX…
  • ALEXI hope so. I think so.
  • ALEXThe chord works both directions. You can come back.
  • ALEXI will leave the back porch light on.

[art pending]

Dev, awkwardly, extending a hand.

  • DEVAlex.
  • ALEX(taking it, then pulling him into a hug)Don't shake my hand, mijo.

[art pending]

Long, real hug. Dev's eyes closed. Alex's hand on the back of his head.

  • ALEX(quiet, into Dev's shoulder)You take care of him.
  • DEVI always have.
  • ALEXI know. I always knew.
  • ALEXYou are also my son.
  • ALEXI want you to know that.
  • DEV…
  • DEVThank you.

Page · 4 panels

Page 15/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Alex, releasing Dev. Crossing to Jesse.

  • ALEXJesse.
  • JESSEDad.
  • ALEX…
  • ALEXCome here.

[art pending]

Long hug. The same composition as Issue 9 page 19 panel 4 — Jesse's face in his father's shoulder, Alex's hand on the back of his head. Allred — the visual rhyme. The reader will feel it.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Alex, pulling back. Holding Jesse's shoulders. Looking him in the eye.

  • ALEXMijo.
  • ALEXYou have spent your whole life trying not to be wrong.
  • ALEXTonight in 2260 — play the song wrong on purpose.
  • ALEXThat's what brings real music back.
  • ALEXNot perfection.
  • ALEXConviction.

[art pending]

Jesse, breathing.

  • JESSEYes, Dad.
  • JESSEI will.

Page · 4 panels

Page 16/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

The brothers ready at the workbench. Jesse with the new green guitar strapped on. Dev with sticks. The chord diagram on a music stand. The Amp-Sim humming.

  • ALEX(off-panel, from across the workshop)Whenever you're ready.

[art pending]

Jesse looks at Dev. Dev looks at Jesse.

  • JESSEOne —
  • DEVTwo — JESSE & DEV: THREE —

[art pending]

Jesse strikes the chord. Dev hits the shuffle. The portal opens — clean green this time, the way it should. Wider than ever before. The new pickups blazing brighter than the old ones did.

  • SFXK — ROOOOOOMMM

[art pending]

The portal stable. The tunnel beckoning. Alex on the far side of the workshop, hand raised — not a wave, a blessing.

  • ALEXGo, mijos.
  • ALEXBring your mother home.

Page · 4 panels

Page 17/ 18

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Jesse, mid-strike, looks back across the workshop at Alex. The look on his face. He is leaving his father, again, but on his own terms this time.

  • JESSEDad.
  • JESSEI'll see you next month.
  • ALEXI'll have the coffee on.

[art pending]

Dev, mid-shuffle, looks back too.

  • DEVTell Marisol-of-here she makes a good arroz.
  • ALEX(laughing)I will not, because she will ask how you know.
  • DEVFair.

[art pending]

The brothers step into the portal. The portal closes behind them. The workshop, suddenly quiet. Alex alone.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Alex, in the empty workshop. He picks up his coffee from the bench. He sips it. He sets it down. He smiles. He goes to switch off the work-light. He pauses. He looks at the work-light. He flicks it on and off. On and off. Once. Twice. Like he has just learned a new trick.

  • ALEX(to himself, smiling)…Hm.
  • ALEXMarisol! Mi amor!
  • ALEXI want to try something!

Splash · 1 panel

Page 18/ 18

Layout — Splash — final page

[art pending]

The exterior of Alex's house in the new 2260. Night. The desert sky. The back porch light on. Through the kitchen window, two silhouettes — Alex and Marisol-of-this-2260 — at the table, laughing about something. Above the house — high in the desert sky, framed by the dome of stars — a small, faint, glitchy afterimage of a portal closing. Nobody on the ground sees it. Allred — Romantic register quiet. The good ending the brothers earned in this issue, even though it isn't their ending yet.

Issue 10 — All pages · Time Traveler — Scouter