Chapter 17 | Page 11: Up in Smoke (Patreon)

After the entire office gets doused with Dr. Muskiday's Project SMILE — a gas that uses micronanos to read a person's reading emotional state, and transmitting it into a cloud above their head — it's getting pretty hard to get anything accomplished.

Except for Jeremy, he seems to thrive under pressure.

Not to mention desks.

Transcript

Panel 1Giant Tess: How long are we gonna have these clouds over our heads?Dr. Muskiday (with a Pinocchio in his cloud): There’s nothing to fear.

Panel 2Dr. Muskiday: A regular dose lasts only for a couple of hours.Giant Tess: OK… OK…

Panel 3Dr. Muskiday: Sigh …and that was a little more than a regular dose.

Panel 4Dr. Muskiday (his Pinocchio's nose has grown quite long): I’ll start working on an antidote.

Panel 5

Cassie (to her assistant Jeremy): “I have a video call with the CEO to discuss our budget overruns! I can’t do that in this condition!”

Panel 6

Cassie: “I’m under too much pressure! Too much stress! What am I gonna do??”

Panel 7

Jeremy’s emotion cloud shows a whip and a submarine (a “sub”)

Cassie: “Oh, Jeremy… you never miss a beating.”

Panel 8Count Spurlock: “I found a couple of errors in the bench mortality numbers, and— HOW DARE YOU!”Above Tempest, a weasel appears in her emotion cloud (an after effect of Project SMILE).

Panel 9 Count Spurlock: “I am not a weasel!” Tempest: “That’s no weasel! — It’s a ferret!”

Panel 10 Tempest: “I knew you’d ferret out any problems in that report! I’ll be sure to pass along your corrections to corporate!”

Panel 11 (No dialogue.) Spurlock walks away proudly. A lollipop floats in the emotion cloud about Tempest’s head.

Panel 12 Dr. Whoosh (on laptop, to Cassie Cruz, who is in her office): “Budget overruns usually come with excuses. You brought composure and remarkable poise.”Cassie has an emotion cloud — caused by Project SMILE — over her head that depicts a cucumber with sunglasses, with snowflakes hovering around it.

Panel 13 Dr. Whoosh (on laptop): “I wish more people handled tough meetings the way you just did, Miss Cruz.” Cassie Cruz: “Thank you, sir.”A small submarine periscope pops up from under the desk.

Panel 14 (No dialogue.) Cassie gently pushes the periscope down, leans back, and her emotion cloud turns into fireworks.