RADIO FREE ELLIE: 1st Broadcast.

[ascocarp]

WHO: Ellie and YOU.
WHAT: Ellie is bored and playing with a ham radio.
WHERE: Anywhere with a radio.
WHEN: After the TDM, for various values of 'after' when time is variable.
NOTES: It's Ellie, so casual discussions of violence are de rigueur.

[The broadcast begins a little fuzzy as Ellie messes with the dials and utters indistinctly to herself.] Can I- uh- yeah, okay. Cool. Hello? Wait, no, that's... [More fuzz and murmuring.]

[Eventually, she seems satisfied. Now, how do radio broadcasts go? She remembers the ones in Boston's military QZ go...? God, she never paid any attention in that class. Her voice comes in clear, and it's obviously a young person speaking.] Uhhhh, nine-hundred hour... fuck it, the sky's fucking broken. Callsign... Daniela Star.

[Right.]

So, like, is there anybody here that goes by William? Or Will? Not Bill. Heh, those guys are assholes...

Oh! Also, has anybody seen any frickin' trees? Like real trees, with branches and shit. I found some potted plants, but they were all plastic. What about animals and stuff? I don't mean the freaky shadows, fuck those assholes. Like actual living breathing animals.

But... y'know, speaking of the shitty shadow fuckers, does anybody know how to, like, beat them? I saw somebody do it, but they had like a full suit of armor. I tried it and my hand almost fell off. They're cold.

...Maybe that's it. Anybody seen any fucking suits of armor laying around?

Comments

[ascocarp]

I can make a bow and arrow. I already found some good strings. [RIP those cellos she destroyed.]

Ten-four, Jack Shepard!

Well, now I'm just jealous. [She doesn't believe him, but shine on you crazy diamond.]

[itselbitch]

A bow and arrows would be good. We could maybe try to take the shadows out from further out that way.

It's actually not that difficult, if you can physically force them back like a Jedi.

[ascocarp]

Oh, I've been doing that. I started throwing bricks and shit, but then I found enough stuff to make a bomb. It mostly just pisses them off and wastes materials.

What's a Jedi?

[itselbitch]

I. Don't think bombs are really. Mm. Yeah, it'd be better to save those for other things. Arrows can do more damage though, if used well. We could light one of them on fire, and I know they don't like that.

[ because maybe jack shepard's used fire on them already. ]

From Star Wars? They're like. Space magicians. That are usually good, I mean.. The bad ones are usually Sith. They can fling around lightsabers and stuff. Actually a lightsaber would be pretty good for taking out those shadows...

[ascocarp]

Not big ones! Like nail bombs. They're easy.

Ohhh, I always wanted to see those movies! The old people always talked about them. But none of us could find any tapes.

[itselbitch]

[ why does this clearly young person know how to make nail bombs............ ]

Oh. Wouldn't those be more useful as traps though? Like caltrops.

Tapes? Even I haven't seen them as tapes. It's all DVDs and BluRay. Or internet streaming. [ legal and otherwise. ]

[ascocarp]

I dunno what caltrops are, but the guy who taught me to make the nail bombs never taught me how to string them through wires like he had them. Fuckin' asshole.

Oh, the internet's been down for years. And all those little disks crack so easy, it's safer to find things as tapes.

[itselbitch]

They're kind of like. Um. Did you ever play with jacks? Like that but. Bigger and way sharper. You use them to slow people down. Or cars. Whatever, really.

Maybe I can take a look? Help you figure out how to string them up. [ at the least, also because he can just prevent the bombs from going off with his magic while they investigate.

damn, that's. really sad news though. ]

Sounds like you're from a really hellish place. What year is it for you? If the net's be down for years already, that's gotta be some apocalypse type stuff.

[ascocarp]

Oh, shit! That's a cool idea. I bet I could make those with nails... [Now you've got her thinking.]

You know anything about this kinda shit? Because it's fucking dangerous, man.

203...4, by now, it's gotta be. Lemme guess, where you're from, everything's peachy.

[itselbitch]

[ jesus christ. 2034? that's way sooner than eliot had hoped. ]

Yeah, actually jacks used to be made from bent nails that had the ends flattened. So kids couldn't hurt themselves when playing with them. In the. I guess super old days for you.

It's okay, though. I wouldn't offer unless I could handle it. I know a way to keep it from going off in my hands.

And they're. Sort of. Peachy. Some are. Most probably aren't. The US is in a weird place right now. Er. Well. Was. Then. Um. 2019? We had the internet still though.

[ascocarp]

Oh, cool. I didn't know that! Can you tell me other stuff? I mean, about the old world. Or the, uh... current world. For you.

Good. Too many people here don't have shit for experience.

Don't worry, we're probably from different realities or some shit. I know it sounds dumb, but it's the only thing that makes sense. The infection hit in 2013.

[itselbitch]

Oh. I'm actually kinda used to the idea of. Different realities and timelines now so. Huh. What infection was it?

And sure, no problem. There's all kinds of things though. I mean. I can talk pop culture for hours. Literally. Is there. I dunno. Something specific you're interested in hearing about?

[ascocarp]

Fungal? You can catch it loads of ways. It turns the people who survive into monsters. I think half the people who were alive before are dead. Probably more. There's no way to keep track, y'know.

What- what are movies like? Good movies. We only had two tapes at the boarding school and they were soooo boringggg.

[itselbitch]

Uhhh. I don't. I mean, there's. Definitely no fungal monsters in mine, so you're probably right. [ a beat. ] It's not like a. Like a zombie thing, right?

God, there's so much, really. What kind do you want to hear about? Action? Romance? Mystery? Thriller?

[ascocarp]

Uhh, dunno. Never heard of that either.

Fuck, anything that isn't Romancing the fucking Stone for the zillionth time.

[itselbitch]

Zombies? There aren't books and movies about that in your world? [ that's weird, considering she just named a title he actually knows about but zombies aren't a thing in her world. ]

God, even I wouldn't watch that on a bad binge. Hmmm. [ maybe it's easiest to start with a classic, something kosher. ] Do you know The Wizard of Oz?

[ascocarp]

I can't tell if it sounds familiar or if I just want it to. [She laughs softly.]

Yeah, I read those books.

[itselbitch]

[ okay, that's fair. probably not worth pressing the issue further, then. ]

Oh. Hm. [ sure, the movie is different, but probably not different enough in a way that stands out. ] What about. Mm. Disney? Did you ever find any Disney stuff?