First Jam / Fourth Wall

[babyfacedkiller]

[ At first, Lloyd has no fucking idea what's going on, but that's nothing new. After asking around, he sort of gets the picture. ]

This, uh, this phone malfunction, does it let you get calls from dead people? Real dead, I mean. Not this weird dead alive thing we got going.

[ Honestly, he looks slightly nervous at the prospect. There's plenty of dead people he'd much rather avoid running into, even over the phone. But for the few he would like to see again, it might be worth it. It's not like he's spoiled for choice here -- the only person, or "person" he knows who might still be alive is also the last one he wants to hear from. ]

Comments

[ewestmarch]

[Rotting zombie girl what up.]

You rang?

[babyfacedkiller]

[ Well, fuck. This ain't exactly what he had in mind, but he doesn't think it would be very polite, to tell her that. It's also not very polite to stare, but that he can't help. ]

I guess I did.

Shit, you okay?

[ewestmarch]

Do you really want to know the answer to that?

[She raises her eyebrows, or what's left of them.]

[babyfacedkiller]

Honestly? I've got no fucking idea.

[ewestmarch]

Smart man.

[babyfacedkiller]

Dunno about smart. Careful, maybe.

You're... undead, is what they call it?

[ Look, he's trying to be politically correct. ]

[ewestmarch]

What was your first clue?

[She pulls down at her lower eyelid with a sharp claw that was probably a finger. Her eyeball is yellow all the way down.]

[doomed_copper]

I think that, at this point? Anything is possible. 'F it helps, I've a slew of sad arseholes I'm hoping not to hear from until this sodding thing passes.

[babyfacedkiller]

[ Yeah, that sounds about right to him. Anything's possible. He's got a zombie on the other line, for Chrissake. ]

But no sad assholes you do kind of miss?

[doomed_copper]

NONE.

Unless my mum wants to ring me up, that is, and something tells me that's going to be a near impossibility.

[babyfacedkiller]

Jesus, that's rough.

But why would your mom calling be so impossible? Seems they're taking calls from right about anybody right now.

[doomed_copper]

This sort of place doesn't seem like it lends itself to pleasant surprises.

Well. At least, not from what I've seen in the one week I've been ensconced here.

[babyfacedkiller]

Well, not being dead is a pleasant enough surprise.

'less you're the suicidal sort, I suppose.

[doomed_copper]

Well, if I'd had it my way, I'd have stayed dead, but my subconscious had other ideas and thought I was worth it enough as a cop to give it one final go, apparently.

[aunaturale]

[Have another dead person.]

Weird dead alive thing?

[babyfacedkiller]

[ It hadn't really been his intention, to light a beacon for all zombies of the world, but thinking back, he probably should've seen it coming. At least this chick's face isn't rotting off, and that's gotta count for something. ]

A lot of us here, we really should be dead, but some dude who goes by the Admiral snatched us up and put us on a prison boat instead. In space.

I guess you're a different kind of dead.

[aunaturale]

[A prison boat. In space. Huh.]

[Fortunately, it doesn't really occur to Amy that this is the same place where Simon and Kieren are. Or else they'd probably be getting an earful about it.]

I am. [Thank you for noticing. There's an almost girlish little sway to accompany that declaration.] You look pretty alive to me.

[babyfacedkiller]

I do, huh? Guess I should work on my skin tone.

[ The truth is he's probably already a little paler than his usual -- he's seen a lot of weird shit, but zombies, that's still pretty new. ]

[aunaturale]

So, how'd you die?

[She asks this like someone might ask where you're from originally. Typical undead conversation.]

[babyfacedkiller]

Nuclear bomb went off right next to me. That explains why I ain't got the whole pale and dead look, right? There was no corpse, no nothing.

[ At least, he assumes there wasn't. Not like he went back to check. ]

How about you?

cw: cancer

[aunaturale]

[Well, that's one way to go out. And rather incredible if he's got a body right now to begin with.]

Nothing quite as dramatic as that. Leukemia.

[speechlessness]

[Nick is... well, pretty dead. He thinks. It's sort of hard to tell because apparently when you're dead, any sense of time goes out the window. The last thing he remembers is digging through the closet, finding that shoebox-- then everything gets bright white and confusing, and now this. He's not sure how he's seeing this, or how he knows he's visible too, but he has the inevitable pen and paper and he holds it up after scribbling out:]

"Dead alive thing"?

[babyfacedkiller]

Yeah, buddy, dead alive thing.

[ This guy doesn't have the whole Night of the Living Dead look, and that's kind of a relief, but what's with the notepad? ]

I had a nuke go off in my face, and whichever way you spin it, that makes me pretty fuckin' dead. But I'm talking to you, so that makes me alive. More or less.

[ See? Real simple. ]

[speechlessness]

[The notepad thing doesn't get explained, Nick just watches Lloyd talk intently - reading his lips, of course - and then pauses to scribble on it again before holding it up once more.]

I don't know how I'm talking to you now, but I don't think I'm alive at all. For me, it wasn't a nuke - but a bomb's a bomb, atomic or otherwise... Especially when it goes off in your face.

[He gestures to his own face, just for punctuation.]

[babyfacedkiller]

[ That's a strange thing to share with somebody, the experience of having a bomb go off in your face. Lloyd supposes the guy has a point, that there isn't much difference between one bomb and another, when it's up close and personal like that. Only in addition to killing him, his bomb also wiped out his entire city. ]

Right in your face, huh? Sorry for your loss, man. Guess that makes us something like death twins.

But what's with the silent movie routine? They don't let you talk in your afterlife?

[ He's not sure how it stacks up against a prison boat in space, but that doesn't sound like a very fun afterlife at all. ]