Transcript: Chapter 2, Episode 25
Standing on the sidewalk outside a two-flat lined with a black metal fence, Blaze turns to Alastor and says, “All right, here’s my house call. Will you wait nicely outside for me, or do I need to put down a sigil?”
Alastor asks, “Why can’t I go with you?” Blaze replies dryly, “Do you have any idea how unprofessional it is to bring your own ghost to a haunted house?”
With glowing white eyes and an overly broad grin, Alastor replies, “Fine. I’ll wait.” As Blaze uses the door knocker on building 2107, he mutters to himself, “Sure he’ll wait.”
Later, inside the house, Blaze stands in the kitchen listening to a short, plump, dark-skinned woman wearing a floral wraparound skirt and her black hair done up in two buns. The woman says, “My mom used to throw a fit whenever I swore. She died six months ago. Since then, the lights always flicker when I say…” The final word is too quiet for Blaze to hear.
Blaze leans in close and asks, “Sorry, when you say what?” The woman repeats the word at the same inaudible volume.
With an awkward smile, Blaze points to his ear.
The woman goes bug-eyed and yells “MOTHERFUCKER” in Blaze’s face.
The kitchen’s flush-mount ceiling light flashes and hisses, then blinks out. As it comes back on, the woman points up at it and says, “See?” Blaze stares up at the light with eyebrows raised.
Tilting his head, Blaze asks, “About how often do you say motherfucker?” The woman replies, “I dunno… like, 40, 50 times a day?” Blaze replies, “Wow.”
Blaze asks, “And the lights flicker every time?” The woman replies, “Maybe not every time.”
Blaze asks, “And do they ever flicker when you’re not saying motherfucker?” The woman raises an introspective finger to her face and replies, “Yeah, I guess. But… I just think it’s too often to be a coincidence.”
Blaze smiles at the woman and claps his hands together. As she looks at him hopefully, he says, “Okay. I’ll take a look around.”
With a gesture toward the room around them, Blaze continues, “I want to tell you, these old Chicago buildings… A lot of times, they just need repairs. Plumbing, electrical, loose floorboards.”
With a hand on his hip and a finger in the air, Blaze confidently says, “But don’t worry. If there’s a ghost, I’ll find it.”
A logo appears: Into the Smoke. Intothesmokecomic.com
An image shows nine ghost hands converging to pet Otto, a content fat black cat. Each hand has several names written on it. Text reads: Special Thanks to my Patrons. Pledge on Patreon at patreon.com/bob_artist. The words “Pledge on Patreon” are crossed out and replaced with the words, “Pet Otto.” An additional URL reads intothesmokecomic.com.
Behold, my favorite unnamed supporting character! And this scene is the start of my favorite sequence in the comic so far…
Also, look at that nice fancy updated credits sheet at the end of the episode. 🙂 If you missed adding your name this round, you can still add it for the next round! If I counted right, there will be one or two more credits sheet updates this chapter. Episode 30 will be the next update.
March was a Sketch month on Patreon, which means I did a bunch of original sketches to send out to patrons in the Sketch tiers, but all patrons get to see them! In addition to several Into the Smoke and Demon of the Underground sketches, the Brotherhood of the Orb and the Squid Band also made an appearance! You can see the sketches here.
The usual monthly posts for the Bonus Tier and Secret Gallery are also going up over the next few days, so watch for them!
Next episode will probably come on April 29!
Keeping with the average of one page-equivalent per week, I’m expecting it’ll be 4 weeks for the next episode. I’m scrambling right now to make up for lost time after my big “car got totaled by hail” incident, which I’m sure some of you have already heard, since I complained about it on like 4 different platforms. It sucks, but it’s not quite as bad as it sounds since hail totaling is treated differently than accidents, and I got to keep my car. It was/is just a headache to navigate, and I won’t have my car back for a few more weeks since all the body shops are drowning in hail repair jobs.
Also on that note, a few kind people dropped some tips/donations when I mentioned this elsewhere, which I really appreciated. But I want to emphasize that I’m not requesting mutual aid! My insurance paid out enough for me to do the most necessary repairs, and the excess that I can’t repair is just cosmetic.
If you ever want to pledge on Patreon or toss in a Ko-fi tip because you love ITS so much, that’s always welcome and it helps me continue to do the work. But fortunately, the car thing is just a time suck, not a money suck. And I only ever want to ask for crowdfunding for the work I do, not the stuff that happens to me. (I would just like to occasionally complain a tiny bit when big stuff happens, lol.)
I didn’t have time for a new incentive this month, but it is the very first of the month, so votes are especially powerful today! It’s not too often that update day falls on the first of the month, so let’s take advantage of it!! Big thanks to everyone who votes!
