Between the art and the alt text, it looks like we're getting some Mr. Spender backstory in this one. For the cover art... I see the Consortium Dream Hub with a spirit (is it just me, or does it look like a stylized crescent moon? Related to Spender's sun spirit, maybe?), the lake at night with what looks like Spender and Lucifer's silhouettes over it, and what might be Isaac and his spirit up at the top right. The clock hands also remind me of something, but I can't remember what.

BOY YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT THE BACKSTORIES, HERE WE GO

Each page of this chapter has been like a bombshell it's been worth waiting two weeks for almost all the pages. Also Mr. Spender is 26?! That... explains a lot, actually. I'm sure that we'll find out why they have a time-limited opportunity to meet Ed's mom, but that's not going to stop me from wondering about it all week. Imagine bringing a baby to the Dream Consortium. Babies are notoriously restless sleepers. Imagine if they ran all that way and then Ed just woke up and disappeared.

26 seems really young to be a teacher, but then what does Mr. Spender teach? Other than ghost-fighting?
I’m really fascinated by Ed’s mom... something crazy happened to his parents for sure. We already knew about the Disappearance of the Doctors Burger but now we get to learn what that actually means?

FYI, Spender was mentioned as being twenty-six far earlier in Page 5x136's alt-text, though that's hard to find.

ABOUT TODAY'S PAGE (7x17):
d-does that say "PLEASE DONT BE SCARED"???

I think it did say please don't be scared. Aww poor wight.

Ok so what do we know about wights so far?
-Wights are spirits that have moved beyond grudge, becoming more powerful but also more beyond reason. It seems that the angrier a spirit gets, the more powerful it gets but also the harder it is to destroy.
-They use white spectral energy, which is a combination of all other spectral energy
-If a wight is discorporated, it will immediately suck in all spectral energy in the immediate area, which would include all spirits and ghosts. Unknown what that would do to spectrals, since they can supposedly grow a new "sweater"
-Mr. Spender most likely is trying to contain a wight
-Mina might be trying to contain one too (that sock puppet looking thing in the background)
-Boss Leader is the medium for the Sandman, which puts her in eternal sleep until she is replaced (dies?) by, it seems, an unwilling successor

Questions:
-Shouldn't Mr. Spender have white spectral energy, or is there some other factor?
-Why would bringing a yellow tool near Mr. Spender cause problems?
-Is Max also possesed by a wight? How does black (the absence of color) spectral energy interact with wights?
-What is the sock puppet spirit behind Mina (maybe I just don't remember it). Is that what allows her to carry so many (self-created) spirits at once?

Max isn't a medium, but if I recall correctly the spirit in his baseball bat is a grudge. I'm pretty sure that's the spirit that temporarily possessed him to speak through his mouth right??

Just wanted to point out that someone called out the fact that we never see Grandpa's legs within a few pages of him being introduced. There was just never any hard evidence Grandpa was a ghost. Myth confirmed. He died wearing a bath robe.

So we got some trans confirmation if anyone still checks this place