Chapter 7 – Page 020
I’m old enough to remember Charlie Brooker’s articles in PC Zone before he was famous. And Rhianna Pratchett’s.
↓ Transcript
Panel 1:
Back in the coach. Si contemplates the question.
SI: I mean she woz a popular kid, all popular kids are kinda Stalin-y when you get down to it.
SI: Y’know yer mates with the pool and the pitch perfect tunes and being in all the clubs? She was all of ‘em in one go.
Panel 2:
Si detects the subtext of the conversation and Nancy explains.
SI: Wot happened to yer mates any’ow?
NANCY: Me being a bitch is what happened.
NANCY: Grief does weird things to your brain, I found.
Panel 3:
Back to the past, Nancy hunches down the street looking bitter and haggard and resentful.
NANCY (box): ‘Life doesn’t stop just cuz there’s less people in it, but try telling that to your narcissistic sense of grievance.’
NANCY (box): ‘What’re you doing, shopping for a bag of flour? Haven’t you heard? My parents have died!’
Panel 4:
Staring out at families milling about minding their own business, they seem even more ghostly and intangible than usual.
NANCY (box): ‘Taking the bus down to the gym, are you? How dare you get exercise at a time like this? My parents have died!’
NANCY (box): ‘Going to see the Matrix sequels? You monster, entertaining yourselves! My parents have died!’
NANCY (box): ‘Also, those movies sucked! Screw you!’
Panel 5:
Behind Nancy, her trio of friends, slightly ghostly, are hanging out around CeX and waving at her.
NANCY (box): ‘“Oh I lost my dad in an accident as well, I know how you feel,” no you don’t, you liar. Stealing a bit of my precious sadness for yourself, it doesn’t belong to you!’
NANCY (box): ‘I’m the only person in history who ever lost a parent, you’re all holograms keeping up the laughable pretence that the world hasn’t ended.’
Panel 6:
Same view. Nancy carries on, bitter and twisted and ignoring her friends. Her friends are crestfallen.
NANCY (box): ‘What’s that? A wedding party got wiped out in an airstrike? How do we know it even happened? It’s propaganda to fool me into thinking other people could have fleeting moments of familial bliss before they’re snuffed out in a freak accident.’
NANCY (box): ‘This is my pain. Mine. No one else can have it.’
Back in the coach. Si contemplates the question.
SI: I mean she woz a popular kid, all popular kids are kinda Stalin-y when you get down to it.
SI: Y’know yer mates with the pool and the pitch perfect tunes and being in all the clubs? She was all of ‘em in one go.
Panel 2:
Si detects the subtext of the conversation and Nancy explains.
SI: Wot happened to yer mates any’ow?
NANCY: Me being a bitch is what happened.
NANCY: Grief does weird things to your brain, I found.
Panel 3:
Back to the past, Nancy hunches down the street looking bitter and haggard and resentful.
NANCY (box): ‘Life doesn’t stop just cuz there’s less people in it, but try telling that to your narcissistic sense of grievance.’
NANCY (box): ‘What’re you doing, shopping for a bag of flour? Haven’t you heard? My parents have died!’
Panel 4:
Staring out at families milling about minding their own business, they seem even more ghostly and intangible than usual.
NANCY (box): ‘Taking the bus down to the gym, are you? How dare you get exercise at a time like this? My parents have died!’
NANCY (box): ‘Going to see the Matrix sequels? You monster, entertaining yourselves! My parents have died!’
NANCY (box): ‘Also, those movies sucked! Screw you!’
Panel 5:
Behind Nancy, her trio of friends, slightly ghostly, are hanging out around CeX and waving at her.
NANCY (box): ‘“Oh I lost my dad in an accident as well, I know how you feel,” no you don’t, you liar. Stealing a bit of my precious sadness for yourself, it doesn’t belong to you!’
NANCY (box): ‘I’m the only person in history who ever lost a parent, you’re all holograms keeping up the laughable pretence that the world hasn’t ended.’
Panel 6:
Same view. Nancy carries on, bitter and twisted and ignoring her friends. Her friends are crestfallen.
NANCY (box): ‘What’s that? A wedding party got wiped out in an airstrike? How do we know it even happened? It’s propaganda to fool me into thinking other people could have fleeting moments of familial bliss before they’re snuffed out in a freak accident.’
NANCY (box): ‘This is my pain. Mine. No one else can have it.’