Title: The Memory Courier and the Missing Star Panel count: 9 panels, arranged 3x3 grid with one vertical splash for the reveal. Style: Painterly line art with soft watercolor washes + neon rim lighting; blends whimsical and melancholy, slightly cartoony proportions. Warm, muted palette with pops of neon cyan, magenta, and brass. Logline: In a floating city of tethered islands, a weary memory courier delivers bottled memories. Tonight she receives a glass jar labeled “Starlight — Do Not Open” and must decide whether to break it and restore a lost star, risking the fragile balance of other people's pasts. Panel-by-panel beats: 1) Wide establishing: midnight skyline of tethered isles, airships, paper lanterns; caption “When people forget, they send parcels.” Small, hooded courier (KAI, mid-30s, patchwork coat, mechanical owl satchel) on a rooftop, holding a glowing crate of jars. 2) Close on hands opening crate; jars float with tiny shifting scenes. Soft sound effects: tinkle, whisper. 3) Medium: courier reads a mismatched label—“Starlight — DO NOT OPEN — signed: Observatory.” Expression: puzzled & travel-weary. 4) Flashback vignette in jar: a child pointing at a missing star, their smile fading. Use sepia inside jar vs neon outside. 5) Courier meets eccentric astronomer (elderly, brass goggles, constellations tattooed on arms) who begs for jar, voice trembling; he explains an entire night-sky archive is fading. 6) Conflict: two panels split vertically—left shows city vendors whose lives depend on contained memories (a baker who keeps the scent of a lost mother, a dancer who keeps courage), right shows the night sky with a conspicuous hole where the star should be. 7) Courier on an airbridge, torn; internal monologue caption: “Some things belong in jars. Some belong where the wind can find them.” Dramatic close-up, hand hovering over jar’s stoppered cork. 8) Vertical splash: she opens it. Visual explosion — a tiny crystalline star flies out, trailing constellations that stitch themselves back into the sky and ripple through panels as luminous memories re-knit across the city. Color shift: neon intensifies, warm light floods faces. 9) Quiet epilogue: the astronomer watches through telescope, tears and laughter; the bakery’s oven puffs a memory-scent of cinnamon; courier stands with empty jar, owl perched, smiling faintly. Final caption: “Some memories guide us home. Some light the way.” Dialogue snippets to include: “It’s only one star,” / “And one star can be the difference between remembering and being lost,” / “Then let it be a map.” Visual motifs: jars, stitches/threads, tiny mechanical owl, star-shaped paper cuts. Lettering: delicate italics for memories, bold for urgent city announcements.