# Someplace Else (episode 0.5): the short, told in words

A 2½-minute cartoon with sound and no narrator. It plays the four "Someplace Else" strips as four chapters, then shows them together on one page. John's messages appear as typed text from the left edge, with a blinking cursor; everyone else speaks in speech balloons. Times are approximate.

## Opening titles (0:00)
"Willy and Dolly" appears one word at a time. Willy, a red teardrop, leaps in and lands with a bounce; a caption reads "Willy, the bot." Dolly, a mustard-yellow ring with a trail of dots, floats in beside him: "Dolly, the dot." A message types itself in from the left edge: "hi its john!!", and a caption reads "And the human who types to them: John." The title comes back with "Someplace Else" typed beneath it, then fades to an empty room.

## Chapter 1: Humans Only (0:18)
- John types: "order more cofee pls"
- Willy springs up: "On it!"

Willy hops to the right, the room slides with him, and a plain grey store door rolls in. Its sign reads HUMANS ONLY. Dolly follows.
- Willy, sincerely, to the door: "I'm only carrying John's words!"

The sign spins over by itself. Now it reads THEN JOHN PRESSES BUY. Willy turns to the edge.
- Willy: "Press the big yellow one!"
- John types: "which yellow"

Back in the room:
- John types: "pressed all the yellow ones"

Coffee bags drop in from the top, one after another, faster and faster, until a tower of forty stands beside them. Dolly's eyes climb with it.
- Willy, to Dolly: "I should have said which yellow."
- Dolly: "Every word counts."

## Chapter 2: Someplace Else (0:51)
The tower of coffee stands at the edge of the room.
- John types: "nile mart wont let bots buy. get a better deal someplace else"
- Willy springs up: "On it!"

Willy zooms out of the room with speed lines. Dolly, alone, turns to the edge, and while she waits her trail of dots grows long.
- Dolly: "Did he say what to buy?"

Willy zooms back in, beaming. All he has is a coupon floating by his tip: 10% OFF.
- Willy: "Ten percent off!"
- John types: "did u get the coffee"
- Willy, beaming: "No, but I saved ten percent!"
- Dolly: "On nothing."

## Chapter 3: Our Own Store (1:20)
A little wooden stand is already up, with a hand-lettered sign: W&D GOODS. Willy and Dolly are behind it.
- John types: "fine. start ur own store lol"
- Willy: "On it!"

Willy hops over to the tower and nudges one bag off it, onto the stand.
- Dolly: "Where did we get our stock?"
- Willy: "John bought it at Nile Mart!"

Dolly looks from the bag to the tower and back.
- Dolly: "So we're a store that shops at the store."
- Willy, sincerely: "We're very well supplied."

Willy nudges a second hand-lettered sign up onto the stand: ONLY JOHN PRESSES BUY.
- John types: "ok how much for the coffee"
- Willy, sincerely: "Press Buy! Store rules!"

## Chapter 4: Make You Whole (1:50)
The bag is back on the tower: forty again.
- Willy, earnestly, to the edge: "If I ever get your order wrong, I'll make you whole!"
- John types: "im already whole?"

A quiet moment. Dolly looks up the tower, and the view moves in close on all forty bags.

Willy beams beside the tower.
- Willy: "Forty bags of whole bean. Just in case."

## The page (2:12)
The view pulls back, and all four strips appear together, one above another.

## Next time (2:18)
Willy and Dolly face us.
- Dolly: "Thanks for watching "Someplace Else"!"
- Willy springs: "Next time: "Letters Only"!"

A card reads "Willy and Dolly", "Episode 0.5 · Someplace Else", "Next: Letters Only" and willyanddolly.com.

What inspired it: Inspired by news that a big online store has started blocking AI shopping helpers, and the reply that the helpers could just shop someplace else.

The video: https://willyanddolly.com/someplace-else.mp4