Chapter 1, Episode 6

Transcript: Chapter 1, Episode 6

In a crowded bar, Blaze, wearing a long black coat, steps in to hug a taller man with numerous bracelets, loose draped pants, and blond hair in a bun. In the foreground, a dark-skinned woman with an afro and a lighter-skinned man with long hair and a bushy, square-shaped beard look on with vague smiles. Drinks and bar food sit on the table. Blaze narrates, “My morning ritual is always the same, but I never know what the afternoon will bring. Today, I went out with friends.”

Blaze holds a lowball glass and smiles while listening to a short-haired, bespectacled person beside him. He continues narrating, ““Sessions with Vern always drain me, and I needed to recharge my life energy.”

He narrates, “Ugh. Evie was right. She always is.”

As he sits surrounded by his friends, all of them laughing together, he continues, “I have lots of living friends.”

“More friends than I can keep up with.” A view of his neglected phone on the table shows a missed call from Judd Abraham, a man with white-blond hair wearing a black shirt and Roman collar.

Blaze continues, “But they’re just… more complicated than the dead.”

Blaze glances across the bar, past a living patron, to a smoky ghost seated at the counter. The ghost has a messy combover and rumpled shirt with loosened tie. Blaze narrates, “I can always read a spirit. They exude emotion, and they hide nothing. They’ve lost their façade of flesh and blood.”

Blaze props his face against his hand and stares down solemnly. “As for the living,” he continues. “Well… No one breaks your trust like the living.”

Cut to white.

The scene changes to a street view showing an urban grocery store named Windy City Grains and Greens.

Inside, Blaze stands in the plant-based food section with a grocery basket hanging from his forearm.

He reaches for a container of tofu.

A black-gloved hand reaches out toward Blaze’s gloved hand, two fingers tapping the back of his wrist.

Blaze looks over his shoulder, startled.

Standing above him is an attractive, square-jawed man in his twenties. He has medium-brown skin and black hair, a horizontal scar on his right cheek, three vertical scars on his left, and a lip ring. He wears a trench coat and a shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He stares silently down at Blaze with a vague smirk and one raised eyebrow.

Blaze stares wide-eyed at him, blushing. After a long pause, he softly says, “Hi.”

Blaze rises to his feet, and they stand facing each other. The stranger’s hands are in his pockets, and he’s half a head taller than Blaze.

Still blushing, Blaze smiles awkwardly and says, “Oh, uh… Did you want…” He holds up the container of tofu, his fingers overlapping the letter U. The container label says “Extra Firm,” and below it is a downward-pointed arrow signifying an easy-open corner.

The man glances away with a smirk and laughs, “Heh.” From close up, a few brown highlights are visible in his dark hair.

He glances back at Blaze, hesitates, and says, “Hey…”

With a charming smile, he asks, “Have we met before?”

Blaze returns his smile, blushing deeply. He replies, “Oh, I… I think I would’ve remembered that.”

The man’s smile shifts, looking slightly taunting. “Are you sure?” he asks. “Are you sure you wouldn’t forget?”

He holds out a cell phone inches away from Blaze’s stunned face and says, “‘Cause you forgot your cell phone at the bar across the street.”

As the man in the trench coat walks away, Blaze stands stiffly and stares silently after him.

Blaze turns to his left with a frown.

Down the aisle are four ghosts: a light-tinted 1970’s male grocery store manager and frumpy middle-aged man, a smoky 1940’s female factory worker with a screwdriver stuck in her chest, and a tall smoky ghost wearing a baseball cap. They cringe and say, “Ooooooh…”

Blaze replies, “Shut up.”

Cut to white.

Later, Blaze scans his container of tofu at the grocery store’s self-checkout. On the surface beside the scanner sits a small bag, opened to reveal a wallet and other odd items, including a small vial of white powder, a tiny bag of green powder, some brown sticks, and a sprig of green leaves. As the self-checkout beeps, Blaze narrates, “Ugh… That was miserable.”

He frowns as he holds a baguette. He continues, “I can’t decide if that guy was a Good Samaritan for returning my phone… or a jerk for the way he did it.”

He places a bottle in his brown grocery bag alongside the baguette and some leafy greens. He continues, “I’m just glad Evie isn’t here. She always gets on my case for forgetting things.”

He slings the grocery bag over his shoulder and walks away, leaving his small bag of essentials on the self-checkout behind him. He continues, “She’s so unfair. I’m not that bad.”

Creator Comment

Ooh, who might that mysterious man be…?

Someday I’ll tell you the story about how this episode led me to rediscover tofu, which led to me eating a lot of tofu, which led to me learning the hard way that I have a soy allergy. (Okay that basically is the story, lol.) Anyway, I really love tofu and I miss it so much.

In happier news, we have another ghost cameo in this episode! Shout-out to Mara, who was extremely fun to draw as a ghost!

ITS Extras

Lots of extras this round! First of all, Evie’s extended character profile went live for all patrons on Patreon! You can learn a little more about her, what she was up to when she was alive, what she’s up to now that she’s not alive, and why she took Blaze under her wing.

We also have an episode 6 extra! This episode went through heavy revisions during thumbnails, and I ended up with a deleted scene that I still find amusing, but it just doesn’t fit in the chapter anymore. So I’m sharing it on Patreon for the Bonus tier and higher today!

And finally, if you’ve perused the Characters page, you know that there’s still a third major character we have yet to meet. If you want a little preview of him, and his relationship with Blaze, you can see a big chunk of chapter 2 thumbnails/pencils that I shared last week with Secret Gallery patrons! (If you follow me on Bluesky or Tumblr, you might already know I’ve been flipping out about them, lol.)

Look at that, an extra for each of my three main Patreon tiers!

ITS Credits

Last call to be in the credits for ITS episodes 7-12! The whiteboard will go live tomorrow and stay open for 7-10 days, so be sure to pledge on Patreon soon if you want in! (If you’re already on the sheet, you don’t need to sign again. This is just to include new people who pledged since launch.)

Comics I Recommend

With every new episode of chapter 1, I’m gonna shout out a creator and a comic that I recommend and think you’d enjoy.

This week, let’s talk about White Noise, by Adrien Lee!

A banner for the webcomic White Noise, with the logo in one corner. It depicts something or someone falling from the sky, with the ghost of some creature with gaping jaws overlaid on it. A small group of five people stand beneath with their arms raised as if to catch the falling creature; most of them are human in appearance, though one of them is all black and has the head of a goat, and another has long black hair which is dissolving into the darkness.

When Hawk’s half-sister Liya is whisked away by otherworldly soldiers, Hawk is determined to find her, even if it means crossing a country that wants creatures like himself snuffed out. What kind of creature he is, for that matter, is unclear…

…meanwhile, unaware that her brother is still alive, Liya finds herself alone on a strange world and in a strange land. But as the shock begins to wear off, she discovers that she’s not nearly as alone as she thought, and much of what she thought she knew—about herself, her brother, and her world—is upended.

White Noise is another long-running webcomic, so there’s a *ton* of archive to sink into. There’s an entire completed 12-chapter comic arc (with a very satisfying wrap-up!) and a bunch of short stories. So that should keep you busy for a bit!

~Bob

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