Panel 1 — A different paper
Jori Pell returns to the Linen Room before the pilot closes. Mara Tey presents a separate copying offer beside the worn sheet retained from Jori's paid assessment. Only cropped hands and sleeves appear throughout.
JORI: Any answer?
MARA: Fourth bell. This is a different offer.
Panel 2 — A desirable answer
Mara indicates the Linen Room's existing cloth-reading cabinet, separate from the human teaching tray. No record has been copied or loaded.
MARA: They want your rag judgment for the cabinet.
JORI: My application asked for a job.
Panel 3 — The proposed purchase
The offer and an unused pencil lie between them. Its proposed material is a copy of Jori's recorded rag judgment, its purpose cabinet instruction, its retention ten days, and its proposed price four brass. These are offered terms, not an accepted license or a claim about erasing learned behavior.
MARA: Four brass. One lesson copy, kept ten days.
JORI: Does that hire me?
Panel 4 — Two questions
Jori slides the offer back without signing. Mara receives it without touching the separate application record.
MARA: No. Your application is separate.
JORI: Then I'd like its answer first.
Panel 5 — Still for people
Mara files the unsigned offer separately. Jori points toward the original worn sheet in its shallow teaching tray. The existing human teaching sample stays; this new copying permission is not granted. No new payment occurs.
MARA: Sample stays paid. Offer stays unsigned.
JORI: The sheet can still teach people.
Panel 6 — Its turn
Jori leaves. The original sheet remains in its tray, the unsigned offer in its folder, and the cabinet receives no lesson copy. All four hiring outcomes remain unannounced in this before-close scene.
MARA: Nothing goes to the cabinet.
JORI: Good. It can wait for a reply.