THROWN AWAY
(by Rawlin of LB)

This comic is simple, sketchy pencil.

PAGE 1

Sitting in a blank expanse is the tiny figure of a young Mori, her hair long and in her trademark ponytail.

Text: When she made me...

The dark, much larger figure of Rawlin appears next to Mori, arm over her shoulder.

Text: ...she was alone.

PAGE 2

A locked door.

Text: They had locked her out for days. Nobody would take her in or feed her. And she'd never let me go hungry.

A disheveled Mori, looking tired but determined to be upbeat, digs through a trashcan, while Rawlin sits worriedly behind her. "You're twice as big," she says, "so you'd get twice as hungry, duh!"

PAGE 3

Mori's teeth digs into a leftover pizza slice.

Text: So she ate garbage... slept in a pipe for drainage...

Mori curls up, sleeping in a culvert.

Text: Surrounded by wealth and plenty, a thrown-away child living on thrown-away food, sleeping in thrown-away places. And nobody seemed to notice.

PAGE 4

Mori and Rawlin run away, smiling and grinning and clutching towels as though they're on a grand adventure. Off-panel, someone blows a whistle and shouts, "Come back here!"

Text: I helped her steal towels to pad the culvert... soothed her constant nightmares...

Mori sits bolt upright, eyes wide and staring and full of tears. "They found us!" she babbles. "They'll--"

"Sssh, [untranslateable], ssh," Rawlin soothes, reaching to touch her hair.

Text: ...but it was never enough.

Rawlin holds a tiny, quaking Mori in her arms, surrounded by the darkness of the culvert. "No one's here but you and me," Rawlin soothes. "Go back to sleep."

"Okay..." Mori says in a shaky voice.

PAGE 5

Mori falls back asleep quickly, wrapped in her stolen towel, but Rawlin stays awake, thinking, face concerned.

Text: I didn't understand why this child was thrown away.

Extreme close-up on Rawlin's masked eyes, but her brow furrows with more than worry now.

Text: No. I refused to understand.

Closer still. Rawlin is glaring now, her expression showing the shadow of the rage that will later consume her.

Text: How I hated them all.

2025/5/13