video | i was one of those preteen backstreet boys fans and i am living

[axemeaquestion]

[The video is shot from someone's seated lap, legs in dark jeans crossed, Rochelle doing her best to hide that she's recording. Across cameramen and a news van, a Level 2 local news anchor is interviewing a young deer Prismal in a *BTSB shirt.

The Prismal is very excitedly going off into why Lecter is their favorite fox boy. He's hot, he's talented, he LOVES cats, and they saw him in the gym the other day and oh my god look at this selfie they got??

They take out their phone and start waving their selfie in front of the camera, jumping up at down. After a point, they just start rambling. Rochelle tilts her phone up to her face. She grins behind a hologram script, expression equal parts exasperated and fondly amused.

She switches to text not long after.]

back where i'm from we had a couple big boy bands like this with a LOT of fangirls like these. i was sixteen when they got really big. i was also pretty dumb. somehow thought i was better than everyone else who liked them because i liked 1980s new wave and synth pop more. like i said, i was sixteen.

so anyone seen these BTSB guys around? Backstay Sailor Boys or something? because wow. i thought the Midnight Riders was a bad name for a band.

then again, the latter literally saved my life after the infection hit. had to blast crappy old guy rock music and fireworks and fight off zombies on a fairground stage to get a helicopter's attention. so what do i know?

anyway. people are saying i should use this network thing to talk about my thoughts more so uhhhhhh. work's interesting lately? management's pushing a lot more fluff and celebrity stories. this station's already small and kind of directionless and now

well

here's hoping i don't end up in tabloid journalism i guess.

Comments

[axemeaquestion]

If you know what classic rock sounds like? Trust me. You know how they sound.

It's actually 2009 where I'm from. But I was 16 in '96.

[herbmixing]

Oh. We'd be the same age if our times matched!

[ How......strangely cute. She's pleased with that thought. ]

It does pass, right? The boy band trend?

[axemeaquestion]

You're sixteen?

Pretty much. Always going to be another trend, naturally.

[herbmixing]

No, I'm eighteen. If you were 16 in '96, then we'd both be eighteen in '98. That's when I'm from. Gosh, that feels weird to say.

Hopefully the trends get a little better in the 2000s.

[ Spoiler: they don't. ]

[axemeaquestion]

oh damn you ARE young. and trust me i know what you mean. i'm still getting used to saying i'm from 2009 as like....a regular introduction thing. kind of like saying what your job is.

[and PFFF--]

after 2005...sort of.

[herbmixing]

Yeah. It's a lot to get used to.

[ Kind of hard to deny that she's young...because she is. But she knows Rochelle doesn't mean it in the dismissive way an awful lot of others have. ]

Speaking of jobs, you mentioned your station isn't getting a lot of big stories?

[axemeaquestion]

uhhh

less "not getting a lot", more my station is

"shifting focus"

i guess

[herbmixing]

Towards pieces on these Backstay Boys.

It doesn't exactly sound like fulfilling journalism.

[axemeaquestion]

not exactly.

there's nothing bad about stories like these honestly. good news or fun news isn't BAD news. doesn't always have to be serious.

but now there's suddenly just. a lot more gossip and shit.

[herbmixing]

Makes sense. Public opinion has sort of shifted lately.

[ She just got here and there's anti-Moonblessed sentiment on the streets. Rude. ]

Is that your preference, is what I'm really asking. Hard news or soft news?

[axemeaquestion]

hard news, mostly

at least not tabloid or home and garden magazine kind of journalism