your-fathers-sword
Original: your-fathers-sword on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Old bearded man (gesturing to a sword): This sword was your grandfather's sword, and his father's before him, and his father's before him.
Panel 2:
Old bearded man: It was made prior to ultra-high-temperature furnaces of scientific metallurgy, and is therefore quite brittle.
Panel 3:
Old bearded man: But, you were made after modern technology too, so you are also quite brittle.
Panel 4:
Young red-haired person: It's why I'm sitting, really.
Panel 5:
Young red-haired person: So, do I get a quest, or...
Old bearded man: You must work hard enough to retire, but not so hard that you die before you retire.
Votey:
A close-up of the old bearded man's face, looking unimpressed.
Voice from off-panel (in a speech bubble): That sword ain't free.
Old bearded man (gesturing to a sword): This sword was your grandfather's sword, and his father's before him, and his father's before him.
Panel 2:
Old bearded man: It was made prior to ultra-high-temperature furnaces of scientific metallurgy, and is therefore quite brittle.
Panel 3:
Old bearded man: But, you were made after modern technology too, so you are also quite brittle.
Panel 4:
Young red-haired person: It's why I'm sitting, really.
Panel 5:
Young red-haired person: So, do I get a quest, or...
Old bearded man: You must work hard enough to retire, but not so hard that you die before you retire.
Votey:
A close-up of the old bearded man's face, looking unimpressed.
Voice from off-panel (in a speech bubble): That sword ain't free.
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. An old man with a long gray beard, robe, and a sheathed sword on his back is speaking to a young red-haired person who sits on the ground holding a sword. The old man explains the sword belonged to the young person's grandfather and his father before him, that it was forged before modern metallurgy and is therefore quite brittle, and then adds that since the young person was also made after modern technology, they too are quite brittle. The young person replies, "It's why I'm sitting, really." When the young person asks if they get a quest, the old man says the real quest is to work hard enough to retire but not so hard that you die before you retire. Votey: a close-up of the old man's unimpressed face as an off-panel voice in a speech bubble says, "That sword ain't free."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.