Second Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

[wantstodirect]

Due to Skrull invasions and cabin living, Tony was now three weeks behind on the best vampire detective show on syndicated TV, Darkest Night. And this Wednesday was the season finale.

So Tony picked up a box of goodies from J, GOB and settled in the second floor common room with pastries, popcorn and a bomb bottle of cola to catch up on the episodes he'd missed. Pastries for eating, popcorn for throwing at the screen. Given that the first episode he was watching featured a zombie invasion, he was going to need a lot of popcorn.

"Come on, are you serious? No zombie's that tough!"


[Open! About Darkest Night.]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

"There are," Francine confirmed, though she didn't go much and definitely not since she'd been one herself. "The staff there keeps them taped up or something, though. Zombies tend to fall apart, otherwise."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"That duct tape," said Valentine, shaking her head. "It really can hold together anything."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine nodded. "I wish I'd had some this spring. My ear kept sliding down." Oh, look a detail she'd hoped she didn't remember sliding gickily into place in her mind. "And then the crazy lady at the flower shop hit me with an umbrella and knocked it clean off. Ugh!"

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Some of what they had been talking about finally caught up with Valentine and she blinked a moment. She looked at Francine's ears.

"Good to see you got it back."

[thatsamilkshake]

"I think it sort of grew back on its own," Francine said. "There was some kind of spell that fixed all the people who got turned into zombies." She frowned for a moment. "Except the ones at Caritas. I guess because they started out that way?"

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"That...would make sense," Valentine said, suspending quite a bit of disbelief to make this conversation seem quite normal. She could roll with it, especially since everything Francine was saying was true. Just...weird. "I mean, they didn't turn into zombies; they already were..."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Nothing about zombies makes sense," Francine said, shaking her head. "No offense to the band, but you're not gonna catch me in there anytime soon, not anymore. Just too..." Something between a shrug and a shudder.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Did you have this aversion to zombies," Valentine couldn't help wondering, "before you even turned into one? Or was it turning into one that did it for you?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine blinked at her, mostly because she'd never considered the question. "Well, they're zombies. But yeah, it was the being one that makes it all ....eeeeghgh. Also the getting eaten by one, that's a factor."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"So much for the limping a mile in the other person's probably sodden shoes idea, then."

[thatsamilkshake]

".....Eww." Francine shook her head. "I wanted to eat people's brains. And I really didn't have much of my own left."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"There are some cultures that consider brains a delicacy, without even being zombified," Valentine pointed out, wondering why this was a topic she kept finding herself wandering into.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine glanced down at the bowl of popcorn and felt a little like maybe the butter had been past its expiration date. "And again I say eww. And I even like liver."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"I hear," Valentine said, "that all depends on how it's cooked..."

Maybe one of these days, Valentine would realize that not everyone wanted to swap gross food stories like she and her brothers did back when she was eight.

[thatsamilkshake]

"..." Pause. "The liver, or the brains?" Why was she ASKING that? Even Francine didn't know.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"I was thinking of the liver," Valentine said. "Especially since I think the brains are usually eaten raw."

Yes, Francine. Why?

[thatsamilkshake]

"Eww!" Forget the zombie part; Francine was trying to. "Real people can get diseases if they do that." Mmm, Z-Cases science.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Probably," Valentine admitted. "But sometimes you could get a disease from almost anything."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Yeah, but catching a cold from touching the same doorknob versus mad cow disease? It's a lot easier to avoid the ones you can catch from eating brains." Usually. If you're not a zombie.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Most cultures that eat brains as a delicacy," Valentine mused, "are probably not on the same scientific level as others. Eating the brains could cause a illness that the culture doesn't actually recognizes as a disease, but, instead, as some sort of spiritual enlightenment or, you know, acceptance, or something."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine stared at her for a moment. "And then their brains disintegrate and they die." She paused. "So pretty much zombies, actually. Without the getting back up part."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Maybe they just haven't figured that part out quite yet. Because they keep eating brains, going crazy, and dying."

She never said it was a good idea; all she said was that people did it.

[thatsamilkshake]

"...I'm sticking with liver," Francine decided. "Well-done liver."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Probably a good idea."