Description

Panel One: Doc reassures Cal, "That's right, but it also means you're not alone." He looks hopeful, and she continues, "So, do you know where Carriers come from?"

Panel Two: Cal explains, "Yeah. 200 years ago, after the pandemics in the 2020s, scientists tried to make a cure-all." Doc says, "That's right." Cal continues, "It didn't work, so they made a vaccine that prevented everything, instead." "Uh-huh. Keep going." "The supply chains broke down, so they modeled it on a virus to make it contagious." "And then what?" "It mutated. It stopped fighting the diseases and just made everyone who had it asymptomatic." "Very good. Anything else?" "They called it the Panacea Strain. Today's Carriers are their descendants."

Panel Three: Doc says, "Impressive! That's better than some of my students." Cal blushes. "Well, my grandpa was a doctor."

Panel Four: Doc, cryptic, answers, "I know."

Author Note

Holy infodump, Batman!

And yes, I know that's not how things work, but I am NOT a doctor. To quote Chaucer from A Knight's Tale, "I'm a writer. I give the truth scope!"

Even though some of the things I had in my notes when I started writing this back in April of 2020 have ALREADY HAPPENED (seriously, it's scary), this is a work of speculative fiction. Also, here we can see a hint at one of the thigns that inspired the comic i the first place. A single line from the cartoon Gargoyles that's been stuck in my brain since I was a kid, about how they could engineeer a cure as contagious as any disease. Of course, my thought even way back then was, "Yeah, but what if it mutated?" So here we are, literally decades later, and I am answering that "What if-?" question Smol Bran had while sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching cartoons after school.

I can't recall what episode, but even now I could probably draw the scene if you asked me to. It's funny how things stick in your head, isn't it?

Well, I'm off to mail a stack of Chapter 1 comics to people!

Keep Masking! We're SO CLOSE!
- Bran