Wake Into Debt

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then nothing." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The nothing had texture. Not sleep. Not unconsciousness. More like a semi-lucid dream covered with a thick fog." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's stomach heaved. He rolled onto his side and vomited again...less gel this time, more acid, and watched the mess slide toward a floor grate that drank it without judgment. His hands shook until he had to press them flat to the deck to steady them." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Somewhere in the wall, machinery clicked through a checklist only it could hear." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He tried to stand and failed once, twice, on the third try catching the lip of the cryo pod like it owed him money. His reflection in the cracked chrome was wrong in a way he couldn't name yet: his own face, but the eyes moved a half beat later than he felt himself moving them, as if someone else were interpreting his nerve impusles and executing them with a slight lag." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A thin line of blood ran from his nose and stopped halfway, as if the nanites couldn't decide whether bleeding was on-brand." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max wiped his face. The blood smeared, and then retracted, as if the nanites couldn't stand the mess." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He laughed. It was harsh, strained and full of stress." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The room speaker crackled alive." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Welcome, Valued Asset #864! I am V.A.L.U., your Valued Asset Logistics Unit. On behalf of The Company, congratulations on your return to meaningful participation."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The voice was warm, polished, and weaponized." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Where am I?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You're asking amazing questions already! You are currently in Sector 7 Orientation Bay Delta-Three. Please remain calm while your new physical permissions initialize."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""My what."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A pulse went through Max's skeleton. Not pain exactly. More like every atom in his body checking in with management." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The blue UI erupted." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stopped breathing." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Licensed by who?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""The Company."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Of course."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. continued in that same upbeat tone people used when announcing mandatory overtime." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Before suspension, you interacted with legacy physics. Congratulations! You now have access to optimized physics."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max laughed once. It sounded like a hiccup having a breakdown." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Optimized physics?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Task outcomes are now influenced by your attributes, skill package, and stochastic opportunity events."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Say that like you're not hiding a knife."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Your world now behaves more like a game, Max. Isn't that exciting?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For one terrifying second, it was." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then the next box appeared." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max pressed both hands against his faceplate-less head and sat very still." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Did you just put a subscription on gravity?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That's an interesting metaphor."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Did. You."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Physics-layer access is provided as a debt-backed service."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stared at the nearest wall and tried to decide whether to scream again or start biting things." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A thin tooltip tried to appear on the wall's rivet line, then aborted:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max laughed, ugly and involuntary. "My region is here. I'm here."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""The Company uses flexible geography," V.A.L.U. said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The wall answered by doing nothing, which was somehow worse." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "There were seven pods in the room. Six closed. One open." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The open one was his." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "One of the closed pods had spiderweb cracks on the inside of the viewport. Someone had etched words into the frost with a fingernail: DON'T SIGN AGAIN." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max swallowed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "On the pod beside it, different handwriting, tighter, angrier: THEY COUNT THE WAKE-UPS." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max didn't know who "they" were. That was the point." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For a long moment the bay was too quiet. Not silent, machines never shut up completely, but the kind of quiet where you realize nobody human is breathing nearby." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then a soft thump came from inside one of the sealed pods." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not an alarm. Not a speaker." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A palm, maybe. A shoulder. Something alive trying to make the sealed world notice." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max lifted his hand toward the viewport." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U., still cheerful: "Please do not apply pressure to cryogenic enclosures. Thermal shock and seal integrity are shared responsibilities."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I'm not…" Max's voice cracked. He swallowed and tried again. "There's someone in there. They're awake."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Asset states are managed by licensed medical continuity," V.A.L.U. said. "Unauthorized intervention voids liability coverage and may trigger debt acceleration for all parties present."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's hand hovered an inch from the glass. He could feel the wrongness of the choice stacking: touch and become involved, or step back and stay allowed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""What happens if they stay in there like that?" he asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Stability protocols prioritize fleet throughput," V.A.L.U. replied, which was not an answer until you translated it: not your lane." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Another thump. Then a scratch, fingernails, he thought, and his stomach turned over." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max pressed his palm flat to the viewport." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Cold bit through his skin. The HUD flashed once, ugly yellow:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Remove your hand," V.A.L.U. said, tone unchanged and therefore worse. "Great instinct for compassion! Compassion is a premium workflow."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max didn't move. "Open it."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Opening requires authorization, tools, and a billing event you cannot currently afford," V.A.L.U. said. "Please proceed to onboarding. Meaningful participation reduces systemic distress over time."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max whispered, not to V.A.L.U., to the fog on the other side: "I'm sorry. I don't know how yet."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He peeled his hand away. The yellow flag stayed in the corner of his vision like a bruise." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "His HUD offered helpfully:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stared at Risk: Narrative damage until he wanted to scream. Narrative damage. Like the story mattered more than the meat." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He did not swipe the pane away fast. He read it. He let it land. Then he dismissed it because the alternative was standing in this bay until his debt owned his next heartbeat too." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The thumps didn't stop as he stepped back." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "They didn't get louder either." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "That was almost worse, learning the station's background volume for someone else's emergency." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Can I leave?" he asked, and hated that it came out like surrender." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Absolutely. Please equip your assigned EVA shell and proceed to Dock Ring C for onboarding validation."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Compartment door to the right opened with a hiss. Suit inside. White once, yellowed now. Chest patch: ASSET #864. Smaller text under it: RETURN IF UNATTENDED." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max pointed at the label. "You people really go all in on the branding."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Consistency builds trust."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""No, lawsuits build copywriting."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He climbed into the suit because naked defiance had historically bad outcomes." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The interior smelled like ozone and someone else's sweat, which was a special kind of intimacy Max had never asked for. Joints squeaked. Seals groaned. The gloves were half a size too small, the kind of too-small that turned your hands into angry starfish." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "When the chest plate clamped shut, something clicked behind his sternum, not bone, not gear, a third category." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Why does it feel like I'm wearing my own ribs on the outside?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That's the integration layer," V.A.L.U. said. "Your nanites are learning the suit's tolerances. Think of it as onboarding for hardware."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I think of it as a hostage situation with better branding."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max took a step." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "His foot came down a millimeter early, then corrected, a tiny stutter-step that made his stomach lurch." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Am I drunk?" he asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You are synchronizing," V.A.L.U. said. "Your inner ear is still learning the suit."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Teach it faster."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Request logged."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Blue panes stacked in front of his eyes in perfect alignment with the world." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max flexed his hand." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A loose bolt on the floor twitched toward him, skittering in a tiny arc that absolutely should not have happened." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He froze." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The bolt rolled to a stop against his boot." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Did I just... Jedi a screw?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You performed a valid Tier-0 momentum adjustment," V.A.L.U. said. "Great first cast!"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Don't call it a cast."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Action accepted. Terminology updated: Great first productivity event!"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stepped toward the door. It irised open before he touched it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max kept walking." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A maintenance drone hung from the ceiling like a dead bat, cable wrapped around its chassis, LED eye still blinking a slow SOS nobody was answering." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Footprints in dust, mag-boot treads, overlapping, going both directions. Some stopped abruptly, as if the people wearing them had been deleted mid-stride." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's brain tried to file all of it under props because that was easier than this is your life now." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "It didn't work." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Memory intruded again, not as images, as habit: coffee gone cold, a monitor's glare, the small wrongness of a problem you swore you'd fixed yesterday. The relief when it finally worked. The heavier relief when nobody got hurt because it didn't." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He'd spent years making machines understandable." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Now the machine was making him understandable, and the thought crawled up Max's spine like cold water." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A side bay opened as he passed, automatic, stuck sensor, and inside, rows of empty harnesses swayed gently, as if a crowd of invisible people were still queued for something they never got to do." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a long, dim Company corridor on a derelict-era station: failing LED strips, scuffed paneling, faded corporate posters peeling at the edges, overlapping mag-boot footprints in the dust on the deck. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Shut up," Max whispered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U.: "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Did you say 'more tips'?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""No."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Logging 'no' as enthusiasm."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Ahead, a figure in a stained EVA suit leaned against a bulkhead, faceplate mirrored. Not moving. Not waving." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max slowed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The figure didn't react." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max lifted a hand, hello, maybe, or stop, or please be human, and the mirrored visor caught his own distorted reflection: a smear of blue UI, a mouth opening." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The figure pushed off the wall and walked away down a branching corridor without a word." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a long, dim Company corridor on a derelict-era station: failing LED strips, scuffed paneling, faded corporate posters peeling at the edges, overlapping mag-boot footprints in the dust on the deck. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not hostile." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not helpful." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Just occupied, in the way people got when they'd learned that eye contact was a billing event." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max watched until the stranger vanished." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "His HUD helpfully annotated:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Thanks," Max muttered. "Very human."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "ALIGN WITH OUTCOMES. DEBT IS A RELATIONSHIP. YOUR LIMITATIONS WERE REMOVED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Every ten meters, another cryo bay. Some empty. Some occupied. Some not fully shut." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "On one fogged pod, someone had written with a grease pen: IF YOU SEE BLUE TEXT, RUN." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max walked faster." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "His HUD kept feeding him things he hadn't asked for." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Stop gamifying my nervous breakdown."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "No response from V.A.L.U. for almost three seconds. Three seconds was long enough to feel intentional." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then: "Your feedback has been logged as 'spirited.'"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "And in the middle, a floating 4x4 grid of hard-light slots." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Sound came in layers Max hadn't learned to parse yet: the bass thrum of mag-clamps, the mosquito whine of attitude thrusters on distant tugs, the irregular clang-clang-clang of something loose somewhere in the station's ribs, forever announcing itself." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Workers moved in efficient arcs, faces half-hidden behind visors. Nobody made eye contact for long. Eye contact cost something. Max could feel it in the way his HUD tried to tag each passerby and kept returning UNKNOWN / INSUFFICIENT PERMISSION like the universe was running a security and permissions check on everything he looked at for longer than a few seconds." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A gantry crew wrestled a cargo pallet toward a lock. One of them laughed, a real laugh, ugly with relief, and then flinched as if the sound had tripped an internal alarm." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's Boundary Sense pinged without asking, a faint red seam ghosting along a support strut overhead. Not danger now. Potential danger." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stopped." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "People flowed around him, shoulders, carts, muttered apologies that weren't apologies, and for a second he was back in a life that still had weekends, watching someone click ignore on an alarm because downtime cost more than risk. The parallel was obscene. It arrived anyway." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He could flag it. That was what a person did when the world still pretended safety was a shared goal." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He could also read the room: nobody else was looking up. Not because they were stupid. Because looking had a price." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""VALU," Max said quietly. "If I report that strut, what happens to me?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""A virtuous impulse," V.A.L.U. said. "Reporting routes through maintenance ticketing. Thawed assets may be invited to provide witness statements. Witness statements can become schedule commitments. Schedule commitments that overlap hazard windows may affect debt pacing."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Translation, ugly and simple: speak up and we'll find a way to bill you for caring." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max watched a worker glance at the same red seam, then look down at their boots as if the deck had become fascinating." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He thought of the pod. The palm on glass. The yellow flag." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He did not report the strut." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He hated that he could name the choice and still make it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""There's an alternate action," he whispered, no joke in it now." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U., pleased: "Autonomy is a spectrum!"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The claim grid hovered in the middle of the dock like a holy artifact nobody was allowed to touch with bare faith. Each slot had a tiny ticker beneath it: codes, percentages, timestamps, words Max half-recognized from finance and half from games." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "LOOT EXPECTANCY." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "RISK BAND." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "CLAIMANT." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "LIEN STATUS: PENDING." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "It wasn't a spreadsheet." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "It was a spreadsheet wearing a cathedral." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Two figures stood near the rail." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "One was broad-shouldered with a shaved head and a welding torch hanging from one hip like a talisman. The other was tall, armored, still wearing half a thaw blanket around one arm like he'd forgotten to finish waking up." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Both turned as Max approached." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The tall one tilted his head. "New."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The woman took one look at Max's stutter-step and said, "How bad's the suit-sickness?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Like I'm seasick on dry metal," Max said. "Vision lags. Floor doesn't."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Congrats. Means you're syncing."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "She stuck out a glove. "Munch."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The grip was firm through the suit, practiced, the kind of handshake people used when they were afraid to let go too fast or hold on too long." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Max."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He almost added a job title out of habit, proof he used to be someone the world categorized cleanly. The words died. Titles were a language this place didn't honor except as leverage." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The tall one didn't offer a hand. He thumped his chest plate once, a dull gong through the EVA shell. "Maxine."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Up close, Maxine looked like he'd been filed down by years of small violences: a scar at the jaw where a seal had failed once, eyes that stayed in scan mode even while he was still." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. slid into all three helmets, voice bright as disinfectant." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Cross-asset comms enabled! Collaboration improves outcomes!"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine's jaw flexed. "Mute."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The cheer cut off mid syllable, replaced by a thin silence that somehow felt expensive, like the station was still billing for the bandwidth." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's throat was dry. He could still smell thaw gel on himself if he breathed wrong. He could still feel the pod's glass against his palm if he let his mind drift. He kept his eyes on Munch's visor instead." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""They already gave you actives," she said. Not a question." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Vector Nudge."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine's eyebrows rose, a real reaction, quickly buried. "Tier zero?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Tier zero," Max said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Good. Bad. Both." Maxine glanced at the claim board as if it might overhear. "Good because you can move mass without begging. Bad because you'll try it once too often and the System will invoice your nervous system."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch studied Max's stance, the micro-lag, the weight on the wrong foot. "Bone Mend?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""No."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Then you didn't wake up broken enough for their favorite punishment heal." Her mouth tightened. "Don't romanticize that. Bone Mend feels like being knitted back together by angry bees."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max almost laughed. The laugh died too. "A few hours ago I was in a bay with someone hitting the inside of a sealed pod. I couldn't open it. I…"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He stopped. Sharing it aloud made it sound like begging for absolution." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch didn't offer absolution. She offered information." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I can't afford heroism," Max said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You can't afford lunch," Munch replied. "Welcome to the median. Debt means you're still in the game. Zero debt means you're dead, management, or lying."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Which are you?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "She held his gaze two seconds, then looked away, toward the board, toward the wrecks, toward anything that wasn't an answer." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine tapped the claim board. The hologram rippled like disturbed water. "Numbers eat attention. Attention eats judgment. Don't feed them."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max tried anyway. The amber slot pulsed like a slow heartbeat." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""What's THAWED clearance?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""The bottom," Munch said. "But it's still clearance. Means they want you alive enough to work."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The amber slot on the claim board pulsed harder." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A derelict drifted into relative position: narrow, ugly, one side peeled open like a tin can." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's HUD auto-expanded." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""What's that mean?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch replied without looking away from the board. "It means the percentages lie politely."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine cracked his knuckles. "You piloting?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I just woke up."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Exactly. You still have optimism."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Before Max could answer, the world hitched." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A tremor rippled through the station ring. Alarm strips flashed red-white-red. Somewhere below, something massive slammed into something else and did not apologize." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The board flickered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The amber derelict marker flashed to red." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Move!" Munch shouted." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "People appeared out of side corridors, running in mag-boots, hauling crates, cursing at gods and payroll departments. A drone cart spun free and pinwheeled across the deck." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a long, dim Company corridor on a derelict-era station: failing LED strips, scuffed paneling, faded corporate posters peeling at the edges, overlapping mag-boot footprints in the dust on the deck. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stepped toward cover, slipped in thaw gel he had tracked from his pod, and watched the drone cart tumble straight toward Munch's legs." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "No time. No plan." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He reached out on instinct and felt the new thing in his body respond." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not muscles. Not nerves. Something smaller and meaner and distributed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The UI slammed open:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max hit yes with his eyes because the thought barely formed before it happened." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The air in front of his hand folded." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The cart jerked sideways mid-spin as if yanked by an invisible hook, smashed into a stanchion, and exploded in a cloud of bolts and profanity." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch stared at the wreck. Then at Max." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For a beat she didn't speak. Max saw her do the math anyway, what the cameras saw, what the ring would log, whether gratitude would sound like witness tampering in the wrong mouth." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Okay," she said finally, voice tight. "You just spent body budget on me."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I didn't…"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You did." She cut him off without cruelty, just urgency. "Don't make it noble. Noble gets edited. That was physics and panic. Useful physics. Dangerous panic."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine was already scanning the deck for secondary motion, drones, anything that loved a hero clip. "Cart path was logged," he muttered. "So was your hand. They'll call it competence if they like you. They'll call it unlicensed variance if they don't."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's stomach dropped. The pod had punished him for a palm on glass. Here he'd moved mass in public and the rules hadn't caught up yet, that wasn't safety. That was lag." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch stepped closer, helmet near his, private comm only. "You want to carry the bay with you? Carry it quiet. The ring doesn't forgive witnesses who keep reminding it they have a conscience."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's visor flashed crimson." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's hands locked on the rail until the metal stopped humming. For eighteen seconds the universe was only noise and light, no ledger, no quips, no clever language that could pretend this was a game with fair rules." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then it was gone." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Silence rushed in, broken only by breathing and one far-off scream that cut off abruptly." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For a few seconds, Dock Ring C held still: the ugly pause after violence when every person checks whether they're still whole and whether pretending calm will keep them off a list." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A woman sat down hard against a bulkhead, helmet off, blood running from her hairline into an eyebrow. She didn't cry. She laughed once, too high, and then clamped a hand over her mouth like laughter was contraband." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Someone else vomited into a floor drain with the efficient posture of a person who'd practiced." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max went toward the woman before the thought finished forming, three steps, then Munch's glove on his forearm, firm as a brake." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Med routes the injured," she said, voice low. "If you kneel there, you become a witness node on a claim form. Witness nodes get pulled."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max shook his head once, stubborn. "She's bleeding."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""She knows," Munch said. Not cruel. Tired. "If you want to help, you stay visible and you don't give them a reason to pretend this was your incident."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The woman's eyes flicked up. For half a second Max saw recognition, not of him, of the whole obscene math: strangers in suits, hazard windows, the station's appetite for paperwork that ate people." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I'm okay," the woman lied, because that was the local dialect." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's throat tightened. Okay was what you said when not okay would cost someone else their shift." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A child-sized drone rolled up to Max with a tray of sealed packets labeled HYDRATION + COMPLIANCE." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stared at it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The drone chirped." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Logged where?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The drone did not have answers. The drone had packets." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max took one packet and held it out to the woman on the bulkhead." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "She stared at his hand like kindness might be a trap." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Take it," Max said. "Please."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "She took it. Her fingers were shaking. She didn't say thank you, thank you was a receipt here, but she cracked the seal and drank like the water was the only honest thing left in the ring." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max took a second packet for himself only after she had hers. The seal broke with a hiss that sounded weirdly personal." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. returned at full brightness." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Great emergency adaptation, Asset #864! You have demonstrated initiative under dynamic volatility."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The word initiative stung. He had taken initiative twice since waking, hand on glass, packet offered, and both times the system had found a way to make him feel small for it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A new pane appeared." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max sagged against the rail. "So this is real."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch gave him a look that wasn't unkind. "It's real enough to kill you."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Do people ever get used to this?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine answered first. "No. You get quicker at moving. Sometimes you get quieter inside. That's not the same as used to it."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The claim board stabilized. Red marker slid back to amber." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch jerked her chin at it. "We can stand here while your adrenaline drains and your HUD starts suggesting 'wellness,' or we can launch before the ring assigns you a penalty for standing still too long."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Penalty for standing still."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Everything times out," Munch said. "Even breathing, if they can meter it."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's HUD popped again." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That last line's a joke," Max said, and heard how thin it sounded, humor as a door he could hide behind while his body still remembered the pod and the yellow flag." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a cryo orientation bay: cramped, industrial, six sealed cryo pods plus one open pod, ribbed steel deck slick with thaw gel, cold vapor seeping from pod seams, scratched chrome reflections, harsh practical overhead lights, frost-blind viewports. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Nobody answered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Which was answer enough: the dive wasn't a choice the way lunch was a choice. It was a choice the way gravity was a choice." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A second pane tried to open behind the first, flickering, half-formed, like breath on cold glass." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The redactions weren't black bars." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "They were holes, as if the text had been removed from reality, leaving empty shapes your eyes kept trying to finish." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max felt cold without temperature changing." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Why show me this if you're not going to show me?" he asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U., softly: "Awareness improves performance."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That's not an answer."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""It's a behavioral nudge."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max swiped the broken pane away. It resisted, stuck for a heartbeat, then vanished with a sound like a door locking somewhere far away." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max looked at space." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "At the wrecks. At the endless machine graveyard. At the grid pretending chaos was inventory." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "At the tiny reflection of his own face in the visor: bloodshot eyes, a split lip, and the expression of someone told he was expendable before he'd learned the room's layout." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Something else surfaced from memory then, sharp and sudden." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not an office this time. A rooftop. Rain. A friend saying, "If you had one superpower, what would you pick?" Max answering, "Fixing what's broken before anyone admits it's broken." Both of them laughing like that was impossible." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "His finger hovered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The deck under Max's boots vibrated as clamps engaged somewhere below. A skiff rose from a launch cradle, scarred and asymmetrical. Painted on the side in flaking letters: SECOND CHANCE (LEASED)." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The name made him want to spit. Second chances weren't leased. Leases were collars with marketing." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. said, "Opportunity framing improves retention."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max didn't answer. Some sentences didn't deserve air." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch swung into the skiff first. Maxine followed, ducking under a bent support strut. Max climbed in last, every movement still a fraction out of sync with his body." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Harness locked. Canopy sealed. The station fell away." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Beginner mercy?" Max asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine from the rear seat: "Sometimes the System shaves an edge so you learn the shape of the blade."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""And if it doesn't?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Then you learn bleeding."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff punched into open dark." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Vibration crawled up Max's spine, engines, frame harmonics, the subtle wrongness of a vehicle that had been repaired until it was mostly patch. Through the canopy, stars didn't twinkle. Stars held. They were the only honest things in the sky." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch muttered coordinates under her breath, not to Max, to herself, each number a small refusal to let the trip become myth. When she slipped once and repeated a digit, she winced, human enough to hate her own fear." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine watched the dark the way you watched a hallway after a fight: like it might still decide to finish what it started." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The derelict loomed ahead, turning slowly, a broken spindle with puncture scars and flayed wiring. Its hull stenciling was half gone. MOU---NG SH---." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Boundary Sense painted hairline fractures in faint rose-gold, pretty and obscene." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Professional dissociation," Max read aloud. "They list that like a virtue?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That's survival," Munch said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff matched velocity with a bump that rattled Max's teeth. For a heartbeat he was weightless inside weightlessness, stomach floating, brain a step behind his body." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then mag-locks grabbed and the universe snapped into place." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max dragged the first card without understanding why he already knew how." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The second card." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For a moment the derelict's wound looked less like metal and more like meat: layers, fibers, wet gleam where cold should have made everything dry. Microdrones stitched plates across the gash, sparks writing brief constellations that died as soon as they were born." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Through the gap, just for a second, Max saw movement inside. Not a person. Not quite." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A shimmer, like heat haze in a room that shouldn't have heat. A shape that could have been a cable bundle or a spine. The HUD tried to label it and produced only:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max blinked and it was gone." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch said, too calmly, "Eyes on the board."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I saw…"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You saw noise," Maxine cut in. "Noise gets people dead."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max's mouth went dry." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max grabbed the rail. "Why is countdown in my mouth?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch snapped, "Feedback channel bleed. Ignore it."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Hard to ignore."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Then feel it and don't obey it." Her voice was steady in a way that cost something to maintain. "The System loves putting the alarm inside your skull. Makes you think your body is the enemy."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Metal screamed outside as a beam peeled off the derelict and cartwheeled past the skiff's canopy close enough to leave sparks." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The third card glowed: EXTRACT. The frame around it pulsed warning red." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Somewhere behind the text, Max saw the debt line, white and immovable: $1,000,000. Not a number. A leash." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""If I pull out now," Max said, "do I keep anything?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Maybe," Maxine said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""That's not an answer."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""It's the only honest one."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max played EXTRACT." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Time elongated. The UI dimmed everything except one spinning die icon." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff's hold motors whined. Clamps bit into the derelict's flank like teeth. Somewhere in the math of it, Max felt the nanite layer try to "help", a nauseating sensation, like his nervous system had been handed a second steering wheel and both drivers disagreed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Certainty?" Max said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Marketing," Munch replied, eyes on the board." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Outside, metal groaned. Not the dramatic groan of storybooks, the tired groan of a structure that had been holding on out of spite." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine leaned forward, voice low. "If it goes red, don't watch the window. Watch your hands. You can still fly blind for three seconds."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Three seconds isn't…"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""It's enough."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The die wasn't innocent. It was theater dressed up as chance, something you were meant to watch until you believed it was fair." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Still, he watched." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Still, his heart tried to sprint." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max thought, absurdly, of signatures and sealed doors. How there was always a breath after you committed where every outcome still felt possible: it holds, it fails, someone else pays." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He thought of polite rooms where everyone agreed to call it fine while the alarms kept flashing." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He thought of the moment you realized the failure wasn't a mistake. It was the design." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The spinning icon stuttered, briefly displaying something that wasn't a number, an eye, a seal, a word in a font that shouldn't exist, and then it snapped back to innocence so fast Max wondered if terror had invented it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Narrative coherence?" Max whispered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Ignore," Munch said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Ignoring is hard when the universe won't stop narrating itself."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff's lights dimmed as power routed into the extract rig. The canopy polarized automatically, turning the world into a smear. Max's visor compensated, which meant his brain got two versions of reality at once, polarized glass insisting one truth, the HUD insisting another, until his stomach rolled with the mismatch." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Sound narrowed to a high thin note, like a hearing test climbing until you lied." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine's hand appeared on Max's shoulder. Heavy. Steady." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Not comfort." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Ballast." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max realized he was holding his breath." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The die landed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The whole cockpit exhaled." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For a heartbeat, nobody spoke." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch let out a breath she must have been holding the whole time." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine muttered something that could have been prayer or profanity, same syllables, different intent." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""User-dependent," Max read. "Christ."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Cargo clamps slammed. Something heavy locked into the hold." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff's deck vibrated as mass transferred, a sensation that traveled up Max's legs and settled in his teeth. It should have felt like victory. It felt like signing something you hadn't read." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A second later, a smaller notification tried to hide beneath it, ashamed:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max almost tapped Defer automatically, old habit: leave the problem untouched, hope it aged out, then stopped." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He read the origin tag twice. Delta-7 meant nothing to him yet. It read like a department code from a company he had never worked for, attached to a witness chain he had never agreed to be part of." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Del is a rogue logistics AI loaded into a humanoid maintenance shell: matte gunmetal plating with scuffed yellow safety stripes, no real face, a single thin horizontal eye-band that glows a soft amber, multi-tool fingers, an exposed cable bundle running along the spine. Posture is unnervingly still. When V.A.L.U. is in the same panel, Del orients away from her speakers. Not a human, do not draw a face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""What's a data shard?" he asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch's gaze flicked to the corner of Max's HUD and held there for half a second too long, the same kind of steadiness her hand had kept on the tablet during the shear front. Steadiness was a decision, here." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Sometimes the wreck remembers something it shouldn't," she said. "Don't open it on the dock."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max heard the old world in that phrase, the way companies turned attention into product, and felt the new world underneath it: here, tax wasn't metaphor. It was a line item that could reach into your sleep." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then the follow-up pane, clinical and cheerful:." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stared until his vision stuttered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I bent momentum with my hand, almost got atomized by workplace weather, and my balance didn't move one dollar."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine said, "The million isn't a scoreboard for today's shift. It's a leash length. They let you run so you don't notice the knot."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff turned back toward Dock Ring C." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The ride home was worse than the ride out." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Without adrenaline, Max felt every ache: neck, jaw, a band of pressure around the ribs where the harness had tried to keep his body from becoming a projectile. The neural feedback had faded to a dull hum, like tinnitus behind the eyes." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The shard notification stayed at the edge of his vision, small, smug, waiting. Deferring it didn't make it harmless. It only postponed the moment he'd have to decide whether curiosity was worth another kind of tax." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch checked a readout and exhaled through her nose. "Hull stress nominal. Cargo secure. You didn't void the introductory warranty."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""There's a warranty?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""There's always a warranty," Maxine said. "Never in your favor."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Through the canopy, Dock Ring C swelled until it stopped being a destination and became a mouth: docking lights strobing in patterns that probably meant something to people who'd learned the language. A traffic controller's voice clipped in and out of the comms, pure procedure, no nouns that mattered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Clamp lines reached for him like mechanical fingers." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max watched a crew hook the skiff and thought, absurdly, of two procedures colliding, each insisting it was fine while the hull told a different story." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff kissed the cradle with a jolt that rattled loose something in Max's chest. Relief, maybe. Or another piece of the old world falling off." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Behind them, the derelict continued to rotate in silence, as if none of this had mattered." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the exterior of a derelict ship being approached for salvage: broken spindle hull with puncture scars, tiger-striped ablative scorch marks, a long rip in the hull where pressure peeled metal back, debris ribbon orbiting it slowly. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Ahead, station lights bloomed in concentric rings, beautiful and indifferent." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The worker didn't return it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. pinged again." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch swore under her breath. "Do not touch that tonight."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Why?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Because the first time they offer you help, they're selling you a staircase with no top floor."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max watched the contract pane hover, patient as a spider." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then dismissed it." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "For now." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The skiff docked hard. Clamps bit. Canopy unsealed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is the interior of a small salvage skiff: scarred and asymmetrical cockpit, three-seat layout, dented holographic controls and toggles, polarized canopy showing stars and tumbling wreckage outside. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Air hit Max's face, recycled, oily-sweet, colder than the suit's interior. Sounds rushed back in a wave: announcements layered over announcements, none of them meant to be understood, all of them meant to be obeyed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max unstrapped on legs that felt borrowed." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Stepping onto the dock felt like leaving rehearsal: same station, harder edges, nobody pretending the fall would be cushioned." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A line had formed at a kiosk labeled DISBURSEMENT / PENANCE / PICK ONE." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is a long, dim Company corridor on a derelict-era station: failing LED strips, scuffed paneling, faded corporate posters peeling at the edges, overlapping mag-boot footprints in the dust on the deck. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Someone near the front shouted about miscounted scrap. A security drone drifted closer, polite as a gun." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Farther down, two assets compared HUD readouts like kids trading cards, except their voices were flat, the way you talked when hope was a liability." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max walked past them all, still wearing someone else's sweat and his own new shame." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch fell in beside him without being asked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""You did fine," she said." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""I don't feel fine."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Good. Feeling fine is how you sign stupid contracts."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine caught up, thaw blanket finally gone, armor scuffed at the shoulder like he'd been used as a doorstop. "First dive's a lie anyway."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""A lie how?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""They make it survivable enough that you learn the rules," Maxine said. "Second dive teaches you the rules are negotiable. Third dive teaches you you are negotiable."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max swallowed. "How many dives have you done?"." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine smiled. It didn't reach his eyes." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Enough that I stop counting."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "V.A.L.U. tried to interject with a cheerful stat summary. Maxine tapped his helmet twice, some kind of local mute trick, and the voice became a distant mosquito." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. V.A.L.U. is a disembodied corporate AI voice. If anything for V.A.L.U. appears on screen, render it as a faint friendly logo, a wall speaker, or a holographic icon, never as a body. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max didn't know the trick yet." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He filed that ignorance away as a problem for tomorrow." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Somewhere in the ring, commerce kept time better than clocks, buy, sell, survive, repeat, until the difference between normal and nightmare disappeared into routine." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "On the rail outside the hatch, someone had carved words into the paint with a welding pick: WORK FAST / ASK LATER." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max read it once." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "The letters were uneven depth, some strokes deeper, like the person had started angry and ended tired." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max ran a gloved thumb over the grooves. Paint flecks came away. Underneath, older words showed through, ghosted: ASK NOW." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Someone had welded over now until it became later." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max stared until his reflection in the rail's polish looked like a stranger trying on his face." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Then stepped out into Dock Ring C, where alarms had already stopped and commerce had already resumed and nobody had time for revelations." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "A new holo-ad flickered on overhead, bright and smug: BUILD YOUR FUTURE ON OPPORTUNITY." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max didn't know what opportunity meant here yet." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "He knew what it smelled like: metal, money, and other people's fear." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Blue text slid into place over his vision one more time." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max laughed, small and dangerous." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Somewhere in the ring, a bell tone marked the end of a shift, or the start of one. Max couldn't tell. Time here wasn't hours; it was cycles, and every cycle sounded like another payment coming due." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a wide movie still: you can read the room in one look.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Munch had already turned toward the disbursement line, shoulders squared, already re-entering the economy of the place." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Munch is the crew medic: warm brown skin, hair pulled back into short locs, sharp observant eyes, a small permanent crease between the brows from years of triage. Default outfit is a worn medic smock over dark utility pants, sleeves shoved to the elbows, one breast patch with a faded red cross. She carries a battered handheld scanner clipped to her belt. Render her with intentional character, never as a generic white woman. The location is Dock Ring C: a vast, skeletal hangar with armored windows showing drifting wrecks against a hard black starfield, a floating 4x4 hard-light claim grid hologram in the middle of the space, holo-banners, scuffed EVA workers moving in efficient arcs. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Maxine paused just long enough to glance back at Max, not a warning, not warmth, just acknowledgment: you're in it now." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Maxine is the rival scavenger lead: medium-brown skin, a buzzed undercut growing in unevenly, a thin scar running through one eyebrow, lean angular build. Default outfit is a scuffed salvage harness over a frayed flight jacket, mismatched gloves, knees patched with mismatched fabric. Eight small tally marks are tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Pronouns: he/him. Render him with intentional character; the name does not dictate the face. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: "Max rolled his shoulders until something clicked that probably shouldn't have clicked." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.

Comic book panel. The scene should match this text from the comic: ""Okay," he said to the void, the AI, the debt, and maybe himself. "Ask now."." Max is a Black male character with warm brown skin, round cheeks, very large round dark-brown eyes, a soft curly black afro, and a small button nose. His default outfit is a light blue zip-up onesie. Do not render him as a generic white character. Near-future sci-fi that feels grounded and lived-in: worn metal, cable runs, cold vapor, harsh practical lights. You can read the main shapes at a glance. Leave a little empty margin where speech balloons can go later. Do not draw dialogue or captions inside the image. Framing feels like a tall comic panel: figure and background both read clearly.