video | un: producer

[axemeaquestion]

So... just to relieve some boredom:

Has anyone ever had some kind of fictional "creature" turn out to be real for you? Vampires, yetis, ghosts, whatever. Something that was purely fiction for you until some point or another, or that Mulder and Scully would crap themselves over. How accurate are they to the stories, if so?

I'll go first. I know I talked about this already, but... zombies? Used to be a pure movie-and-video-game thing for me. Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later sort of shit. Then they turned out to be real. Mine aren't undead, but they DO mutate, which is kind of bullshit.

Zombie bullshit.

[that's zoey's line but ok rochelle]

"Aliens" is cheating, for the record, but only because we're all going through that right now.

And, uh... if you are a vampire, yeti, ghost, or whatever? That's cool too.

[slowly, she's accepting that these are Real Things she has to consider too]

I'll be real, I was just barely used to the zombie thing by the time I got here. But I'm getting used to the other stuff... a little.

Comments

[firstdayblues]

Zombie bullshit is about the best way I can put it, right down to the mutating part.

Body snatchers turned out to be pretty close to the mark too.

Honestly, at this point I don't know if I can even be surprised anymore.

[axemeaquestion]

Damn. Lots of zombie bullshit, I'm hearing.

[Like she said to Carlos - it's weirdly comforting.]

Yours mutated too? What kinda things? I doubt it, but... who knows, maybe we got the same ones?

[... wait.]

Hang on. BODY snatchers? Like... John Carpenter shit?

[firstdayblues]

Too many kinds across too many outbreaks to count. You never forget your first, though. Picture a zombie with no skin, giant claws, and a tongue longer than it's body.

I still have nightmares about those guys sometimes.

And yeah, kind of. More direct, this terror group tried to use parasites that take over your body. Pretty bad stuff.

[axemeaquestion]

Ugh.. Yeah, I can see it. We had ones with REALLY long tongues that liked to hang out on rooftops and tongue-snipe us. Called them Smokers. [Shudder.] They still had skin, though.

Are you putting me on?

[She believes it, just. Wild.]

[firstdayblues]

I wish. My job would be a hell of a lot easier if these assholes weren't constantly coming up with new and worse ways to infect and kill people.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother, but it's not like I could quit even if I wanted to.

[axemeaquestion]

... aw, hey now.

I'm gonna assume you're like a zombie... investigator or something? [????] So if it helps... I'm sure the little guys appreciate less zombies.

[And, after a pause, she loudly whispers:]

I'm the little guys.

[firstdayblues]

Yeah, Division of Security Operations. Technically we handle any acts of bioterror, but at the heart of it we all know it's to stop bio-weapons like zombies.

And thank you. The little guy is exactly why we do it, but it's nice to hear sometimes.

[axemeaquestion]

Zombie acts, basically. I almost wish we had something like that. CEDA - our Civil Emergency and Defense Agency - did a pretty... not great job with the Green Flu.

[Pause.]

The infection, I mean. Sure as shit wasn't a flu, but the name stuck. Point being, between handling acts of bioterror or telling people to wash their hands and barricade their homes? I'd probably like you guys better.

[firstdayblues]

That's pretty terrible. Sounds like more of a coverup than a containment plan... Of course, it's not like our government was that much better. They only stopped the first outbreak by blasting a city back to hell. Me, I only barely made it out.

That was all before I started working for them, of course. Never would have figured surviving zombies would be the top line on my resume.

[axemeaquestion]

I... kind of doubt it was a cover-up. More like they were in over their heads. Shitty as they did, I don't think anyone expected zombies that could spit acid or throw goddamn cars. Military took over after a while but...

[Her voice fades. That one's another story, but her tone says something bad happened.

Anyway.]

Shit, maybe I should put that on my resume too. I work TV news, though.