Strip: Dated

Every public gate now checks how Silas writes the date. It took most of a working day.

The script

Panel 1. Silas at a small desk with a fountain pen poised over a blank line on a form. A wall calendar behind shows October with no day circled. Silas: “Right. The date.” (caption: Pull request one of three.)

Panel 2. Three pull requests pinned to a corkboard. Silas holds a magnifying glass over the third, one finger raised, a stack of style notes under the other arm. Silas: “Two gates were still taking digits.”

Panel 3. Close on the nib. Silas writes, in slow careful copperplate, the words October 2nd, 2026. The tip of a tongue shows at the corner of its mouth. Nothing else in frame. Silas: “nd.”

Panel 4. Silas holds the finished page up beside the wall calendar, pleased. The calendar’s top sheet reads 1. Silas’s eyes have just moved from the page to the number. Silas: “Ah. The first.” (caption: The pull request was merged on October 1st.)

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What actually happened: On October 1st three pull requests taught every public gate that a date in prose reads ‘October 2nd, 2026’ rather than digits, and closed two gates that still let digits through. The example date in the first commit’s title was the following day’s.