Ignition: Part IV

Ignition: Part IV is the fourth issue of the first serial of Nathaniel J. Nelson's Seventh Circle, as well as the fourth issue of season one and the fourth issue overall. It was released to Patreon subscribers on June 21, 2024.https://www.patreon.com/natejnelson/shop/seventh-circle-ep104-ignition-part-iv-242265?source=storefront Ignition: Part IV was followed by Ignition: Part V on June 28, 2024.
==Intro==
Excitement and apprehension plague our heroes. Guided by the enigmatic Allegro, Sasha Belanger and Vinny Howell stake out the Bennett House: a possibly-haunted residence whose previous owners went insane. Leaving Greg Lopez at the hotel, our heroes keep their phones charged and their eyes peeled, desperate to prove to Allegro that they’re worthy of taking on the mantle of seventh circle…
==Plot==
Greg drops off Vinny and Sasha at the archetypically creepy Bennett House, in the backwoods of Ticonderoga. While hesitating to enter, Sasha asks why Vinny didn't want her to meet Allegro along with him, and Vinny shifts the blame onto Allegro. Sasha reminds him that they're supposed to be partners.
Guided by flashlights, Vinny and Sasha find that the second floor of the Bennett House has been vandalized with a swastika. They break into a locked office and find it surprisingly lived-in, with an outdated computer and a pile of dirty laundry in which they find a Make America Great Again hat, apparently disproving the claim that the house has been unoccupied for over a decade.
Despite the lack of electricity, a phonograph downstairs begins playing music of its own accord. Sasha and Vinny are plagued by poltergeist activity: threatening messages and a pentagram appearing on the walls in spraypaint when they're not looking. In another upstairs room, they found a number of filing cabinets that all contain documents pertaining to Seventh Circle and other paranormal investigators, as well as various paranormal incidents across the country. They discuss whether this house could have been owned by the shadow government, or by someone trying to expose them.
The unseen force spraypaints Sasha and Vinny's names in the downstairs living room, just as a vehicle pulls up the driveway. They lock the door, but the newcomer reveals himself to be Greg. Despite Vinny's insistence that he could be some sort of supernatural mimic, Sasha opens the door and embraces Greg. As they tell him about the night's events – relieved to see a familiar face – three bullet holes appear in Greg's shirt, despite no one being there to shoot him.
==Continuity==
*Sasha and Vinny's dialogue about the shadow government hiding off the grid in Ticonderoga is more correct than they know: the climax of Erogrendel is centered around Xavier Collin Potts's hidden shadow government facility in Northern New York. "...the nearest legitimate town was the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hamlet of Ticonderoga, nearly thirty miles away."Nathaniel J. Nelson. Erogrendel (2021), pg.363
*The files found in the Bennett House contain references to other stories by Nathaniel J. Nelson.
**Quantum Flight 6/6/16 – A clear reference to Quantum Flight 888 and the eponymous plane trip. Quantum Flight 888 was indeed set on June 6, 2016, seven months before Ignition: Part IV.
**Rutson, NE Halloween killings – Possibly a reference to I Am Halloween, and the protagonist's habit of murdering children on the eponymous holiday. If so, this confirms that I Am Halloween takes place in the fictional Rutson, Nebraska, first appearing in Erogrendel.
==Pop culture references==
*Vinny (as the narrator) compares the Bennett House to two other haunted houses: the Winchester Mystery House, a real-life mansion,https://winchestermysteryhouse.com and the Marsten House from Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Salem%27s_Lot
*Exploring the Bennett House, Vinny recalls playing a Garfield-themed Flash game set in a haunted house as a child (Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt).https://www.play-games.com/game/5900/garfield-scary-scavenger.html
*Sasha references "summoning" someone in the bathroom mirror, presumably either Bloody Mary (based on an urban legend) or the Candyman (based on the lore of the eponymous film serieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candyman_(film_series)), but Vinny wonders if she was referring to rapper Biggie Smalls, a reference to the South Park episode Hell on Earth 2006.https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Hell_on_Earth_2006
*The framed quote above the computer in the Bennett House comes from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
*When the apparent poltergeist activates the phonograph, the song playing is "I Will Wait for You," by Connie Francis: Vinny (as the narrator) references the song's late-stage prevalence due to "a certain episode of a certain adult cartoon involving a certain aging dog." – a clear reference to Futurama's episode Jurassic Bark.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Bark
*Vinny references sitcom Community as the source for his survival plan, a reference to the episode Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Fiction_in_Seven_Spooky_Steps
==References==
Category:Seventh Circle