Chapter 7

Chapter 7 title page

The Blues

Characters

• Lorelei
• Oscar
• Clifford
• Sylvia
• Bean Nick's patrons
• Dive bar patrons
• Bean Nick's owner
• Gilly's patrons
• Singer at Gilly's
• Taco Bueno patrons
• Street life
• Eliza

Continuity

• Oscar womanising
• Oscar holding the back of his head
• Clifford and beer
• Clifford and cigarettes
• Terminator 2
• Oscar the researcher
• How Oscar came to Podunk
• Oscar's family
• Clifford's sense of smell
• Oscar drunk
• Clifford smoking
• Don't pat the werewolf, Oscar
• Sylvia playing patience
• Magic
• Nurse Sylvia
• Oscar's mono
• Carl
• Sylvia's porch light
• Clifford's injuries
• Oscar holding the back of his head AGAIN
• Friendship

Changes

Page 377 was accidentally posted with an art glitch.

Pages 393 and 423 had the tattoo layer omitted when first posted.

... and Clifford's black eye, from 436.

Locations

• Bean Nick's
• Downtown Podunk
• Sylvia and Oscar's home
• Dive Bar (really! that's what it's called!)
• Podunk City Park
• Gilly's
• Lorelei's apartment
• Taco Bueno
• Legend's BBQ

Art

Hands are notoriously hard to draw, we're told. (p385)

Two page splash page (p400-401)

Food! (p432)

Quotes

"I hope you didn't hear me singing."
—And why is that, young lady? (p365)

"Did you know that you can drown in a person?"
—Oscar's journal (p365)

"And are you wild, Oscar Wilde?"
"I don't know. It might be false advertising."
"Oscar mild?"
"That's me."
—I flirt u (p368)

"We used to get beer and cigarettes from Jacob's brother, but he moved. And I was like, well, Oscar's old, so..."
"I'm not old. Also, no."
—Clifford has a plan (p370)

"I'm not going to be the creepy guy in town who buys booze for all the teenagers."
—He might have moved to Podunk and live in a haunted house, but Oscar has standards (p370)

"I've been trying to collect everything I can on some of the things I've seen here, and I keep coming back to this same website. This guy collected all these old myths and you can search through them by keywords. This is one of the only things I've been able to find on Thunder Children."
—That was more of a suggestion that he agreed to with Eliza, then? (p372)

"Can we look up dancing music?"
—Sylvia has much better ideas about what Oscar should be doing (p373)

"You didn't have to bring it to me."
"I know, but I wanted to. And I do what I want."
"I can see that."
—I FLIRT U (p377)

"What brought you here?"
"Oh. I move a lot... for other people, mostly. I make a lot of bad decisions."
"Yeah. Me too."
—Backstory? (p378)

"I didn't pick Podunk. I threw a dart at a map, and looked up the Craigslist postings for where it landed. And there was a house for rent. For next to nothing. It seemed like the perfect way to get away and clear my head. I only planned to stay for a couple of weeks, but... that was a couple of months ago."
—Backstory! (p379)

"I didn't tell anyone I was leaving, or where I had gone. I still haven't."
—River's at least gotten a nice, if inexplicable, rose bush out of this (p380)

"Is that... did you write a phone number in the foam?"
"It's mine! Ask me out, already!"
"Yes, ma'am."
—Baristas aren't like the rest of us (p390)

"Hey, do you want to go back to my place?"
"Yeah. Want to bet I can really make you sing?"
"... what?"
"Like the day we first met. You were singing--"
"Stop. Stop! You heard me?"
"Well, yeah, a little. You're really good. What's--"
"Of course! I should've known better! Go home, Oscar. We're through."
—Singers aren't like the rest of us either (p392-p393)

"Help! Police! I'm being stalked by a werewolf!"
—Happens to the best of us, Oscar (p396)

"I was on my way home, and I could smell you from all the way up the hill."
"Wait. You can smell me? Like, werewolf smell?"
"Yeah, and you smell like beer from like a mile away. Are you wasted?"
"Yes, I am!"
—Clifford knows things (even if Nora doesn't) (p396)

"I was kissing a girl, but then she ran away. That never happens to me. This town is so weird..."
—Oscar's identity crisis (p396)

"Hey! What about you? What's going on at school? Do you like anybody?"
"What?! Why do you care? Go away!"
"Ha ha ha! You don't have to tell me."
"Man, I don't know... It doesn't even matter. She's really popular."
—Aw, if Darcy only knew of this... (p397)

"Have you considered the real problem is that you're kind of mean sometimes?"
"Hey! Fuck you! I'm not mean. Asshole."
—Truth bombs (p398)

"Just tell her you're a werewolf. That'll impress her."
(pat pat)
"Yeah, bite me."
—Advice from Oscar (p398)

"I think I have a fever. And--"
"Here..."
"Oh. Uh... That actually feels nice."
—This sort of nursing is entirely new to both of them (p405)

"I'm sorry. For always making you worry about me."
"What? Oh. Please don't feel that way. Having you here makes me so happy. I'd gladly take a little worry."
—That's not all she'd gladly take IYKWIM (AITYD) (p406)

"Oscar's sick."
"What? Did he get mono from kissing that girl?"
—Clifford with some payback for last night (p406-p407)

"Thanks for helping me out, Sylvia. If I get bad grades, my stepdad gets real annoying."
—Possible understatement, there (p409)

"It's not real."
"It feels real."
—Oscar's going under (p414)

"Sometimes when I sing... it does things to people. Certain people. Like, they want to be near me, and if they can't get to me, they get... sick. They see strange things. They can get so sick and confused that they... hurt themselves. That's why I left you--I thought you didn't have it that bad, maybe. And that I could help you to get over it, before you got hurt. You'd just... feel sick for a couple of days, and then you'd be better. I didn't mean to hurt you. If I can get far enough away, it fades. The hallucinations, the restlessness, all of it. They'll go away."
—So... that's as well as the mono? (p419)

"I don't feel sorry for you. And I won't ask you what happened. We're all running from something, right? Just, tell me you want me and I'll believe you."
—BAD IDEA, Lorelei, BAD IDEA (p423)

"Would you believe that I've seen some pretty strange things?"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yep."
"Like what?"
"I promised the other strange things I wouldn't tell."
—You also promised not to write them down, Oscar, remember that bit? (p426)

"So, what does this mean? One if by land."
"It's something I got to remind myself how to do what's right. Instead of what's easy."
—As we all know, Oscar's easy (p426)

"What the hell?!"
"What is it?"
"How long have I been here?! What day is it?"
"Calm down! It's Saturday."
"Which Saturday?"
—Unstuck in time (p428)

"I'm sorry. You've just been sleeping. I didn't make you do anything you didn't want to do. You wanted to stay... So, I let you. I tried to tell you. You feel better because you're near me, but you aren't better."
—Listen to her this time, Oscar (p429)

"Oscar! I thought you were gone! I thought you went back to Chicago!"
"I'm sorry--"
"I was afraid that I was all alone again."
—Sylvia's feelings (p431)

"That was pretty messed up, man. A week! You can't pull something like that on Sylvia again. She worries about you like crazy. I didn't know what to tell her. It fucking sucked."
—At least someone checks in with Sylvia (p432)

"Oscar Mild"
"This town ain't big enough for the both of us. ♡"
—Lorelei's note for Oscar (p439)

"When you want to help, it's easy to think that someone's only real problem is that they just haven't met you, yet. There is no magic wand."
—Wise words from the witch (p440)

"You literally flaked out and left right after promising that you wouldn't flake out and leave."
—Clifford has Oscar bang to rights (p442)

"You're real good at saying things, but they don't matter if they're just lies."
—Could be he's been thinking about this for a while (p443)

"I'm not trying to say you can't be mad at me! Just... let me know what I can do to start making it up to you."
—Oscar taking a big risk on the no-beer-or-cigarettes front (p443)