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[video] whatever bitter brew you're drinking

[♪ Clementine debated a lot on whether or not she should use video or text. People see a kid, and they already feel a certain way about that. It might have them keeping some truths to themselves, and it's important that she get all the information she can for this article. It's a matter of life or death. These zombies end up in Wonderland? People will be dropping like flies unless they already know how to deal with it.

However, Georgia talks about truth a lot and how important it is, and the truth is Clementine's a kid who has lived through 2 years of zombies and an apocalypse. It's the truth, and she's been through plenty of shit because of it. She finally decides to do video. She's clearly seated in the library with a notebook at her side and a bunch of recording devices she's only just learned how to use.]

Hi, I'm Clementine. I'm an intern with After the End Times with Georgia and Shaun.

I'm writing a paper about people's zombies or walkers or whatever you call them in your world. If you have the dead coming back to life and trying to eat people, I want to know about it. I want to interview you about it.

I get I'm a kid, but I've already lived through some shit. [She winces. Cursing is probably not professional.] My world's had walkers for over two years.

Don't hold back with me. People will die if this shit's- [GAH] stuff's not right. This is how we can keep people safe when Wonderland gives us an event from one of our worlds. We gather the information. We share it. We teach people how to survive. Even if you come from my world, you might have some tips on survival that I don't know yet so I want to talk to you too.

We can talk here or you can meet me at the library. Georgia said she'd be checking in too so don't be surprised if she pops in on the interview since I'm still learning how to do this part.

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[People in the library might find Clementine at one of the tables, surrounded by her notes and her pen and her highlighters, which she's trying to use to help her color coordinate her notes which she'll take on what people tell her. Each color for a different world/different type of zombie.

When she was last in school, she wasn't making notes. She was only just learning how to write a full paragraph.

The third grade feels a long time ago. She's got a gun and hatchet on her as always. They're sheathed. Then the camcorder goes tumbling out of her hands as she hisses out a breath:]

Fuck! [Way too loud for a library. Definitely not professional.]

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_{[In the fashion of a typical adult, Anders takes one look at the maker of the video and sees a tiny tot looking back at him. To be fair, he is a tall man, most women under 6'0" seem small to him--the little girl just happens to be smaller than most due to her age.

But there are a few things in her message that get his attention (besides the "After the End Times" bit, that sounds a bit on the nose to him), namely--zombies or walkers. Zombies. Walkers. He's heard that before.]}

Say... might you be from the same world as someone here going by the name of Michonne?

_{[Curious squinting. That sounds like Michonne-speak.]}

[Clementine actually smiles at the mention of Michonne. She's looked out for her, talked to her about what it's like growing up in a zombie invested world. Hell, Michonne's even tucked her in one time, and it meant the world to Clementine. She can't remember the last time that she was tucked in. Maybe by her babysitter before the world went to hell. She really likes Michonne a lot.]

I am, yeah. We didn't meet until we were here, but we both knew the same guy, and in our world, zombies are called walkers.

Most other places, it seems like they're called something else.

I wondered. I haven't heard anyone else use that name for the undead except her.

_{[Someone coming Michonne's horror show of a world is by no means something to celebrate when the girl in question looks no older than the age Anders had been at time he'd first showed signs of magic potential, but he still returns the smile with a faint one of his own.]}

You must be made of some tough stuff to come out the other side of that shit-- _{[He'll curse in solidarity with her. Who needs professionalism?]} --and still want to study them. I'm Anders, Michonne's a friend of mine.

[Clementine smiles a little more when he curses too. Mostly because his voice sounds kind of fancy otherwise so saying 'shit' makes it all the better.]

Hi, Anders. Michonne's pretty amazing. [So any friend of hers, Clementine already approves of. She trusts Michonne's instincts like that.] I want to study zombies, cause that's how you survive them and everyone deserves to know how to survive them.

I want to study anything that's dangerous in people's worlds cause of that too, but... that'd be a really long article.

_{[If Anders had an inkling Clementine found his accent entertaining, he'd be more than happy to serenade her ears playing the pronunciation game. Maybe involving less profanity, though. He doesn't suppose he's winning any role model awards here by swearing in front of a child who's probably already grown up faster than she should.]}

I have to agree with that. She has a flair for singing I never would've guessed.

_{[It's a bit of an inside joke that earns a broad smile from Anders. Clementine might have gotten a kick out of hearing Michonne sing a little ditty about beans and tooting.

On the matter of why Clementine had gone and made her video, his amusement sobers to something a little contemplative. Two years of flesh-eating monsters that can infect you in a single bite. He can only imagine the kinds of things she's seen and done in that time. Survival is an ugly business some days.]}

Wanting to educate people to save lives is a noble goal. _{[No patronizing, and no joke this time--it is an admirable thought.]} Where I come from, if a corpse is trying to eat you it's usually because it was possessed by a demon. Less infectious disease, and more malevolent spirit.

...she sings?

[Clementine didn't know that, but now she's going to have to ask her about it especially when she sees that smile on his face. It makes her sort of smile too mostly cause she can only imagine what it's about.

She bites down on her lip though as the seriousness sort of hits. She can tell he's not patronizing, but he actually means what he's saying. It's important. She knows if she hadn't been taught how to survive than she would have already been dead a long time ago. She wants to do that for other people too, to maybe be the reason people can save themselves instead of-

Well, that's new.]

How does a corpse get possessed by a demon? I mean, can it happen to any corpse?

Get her to belt something out sometime. Of her many skills, I strongly suspect "karaoke queen" is secretly one of them, on top of knowing how to kill zombies. So far the people from your world seem to be an exceptional bunch.

_{[It's complimentary. He has a soft spot for children, but especially children who've gone through impossible hardships and still come up swinging, and already he's getting the impression Clementine falls squarely in the middle of that category. A fighter. Not to mention--]}

A young scholar after my own heart! _{[He has no qualms becoming the subject of an interview and sharing what he knows. If she can handle zombies, demons aren't that much different.]} Most demons want a body. A living one, preferably, but they're not always the best judges of quality. Sometimes they end up in the dead because they're the closest around.

_{[Justice isn't a demon, but the same had happened to him, his spirit form shoved inside the nearest meat suit: a corpse, as it'd turned out. To Clementine's eyes, his decaying flesh may have made him look zombified.]}

Most anything will do in a pinch. I knew a cat that was possessed by a demon once. Those were an exciting few hours.

[Clementine tilts her head to the side a bit, but she's smiling at the compliment. She doesn't really think she's heard anyone put it quite that way before. That they're exceptional.]

I'll ask her to. Thanks for sharing this secret talent of hers with me.

[She smirks a bit at his words that she might be a scholar of all things when she's only ever seen herself as- well, as a survivor lately before she nods, writing down more of what he says. It's important to learn. She wants to learn it all. She's afraid she'll forget something when a critical moment happens, but she's going to pour over these notes again and again until they stick.]

So does that mean demons can talk and just go around acting all demon-like? If they want a body, they have to want it for something. [It seems sort of useless to inhabit a body for nothing more than to eat brains like... zombies do. She frowns a bit though-]

That poor cat. Was the cat okay? I mean, how do you get free from demon possession?

Happy to help! Be sure to give her a reporter's thorough grilling at what bean-related songs she knows. She's tough, but I think she'll crack at the sight of your notebook. It's very official-looking.

_{[It's strangely endearing that she's making notes on what he's saying. He hadn't expected to be taken that seriously, but he supposes he should have--these are serious dangers they're talking about here, there, or anywhere. It's just habit to treat Thedas' menagerie of threats a little irreverently and shrug them off; after so many years of getting lectured about demons, he's become a little numbed to their danger.

(And maybe that's where the other Anders in other version of Thedas had gone wrong. Not taking dangers seriously. Taking a spirit into his body.)]}

Right, well--normally they go about their demon business in the Fade. That is to say, a different plane of reality. There's not a lot of substance for them there--we have all the fun where we live, in the mortal world. Emotions. Colors. Sounds. They want what we have. The life we have. They feed on it--sometimes literally, like your zombies.

_{[Is that TMI in the words of Barry Allen, acronym master extraordinaire? Is... he going to give the girl nightmares going on at length about this? Yeesh, he hopes not. His expression takes on a wistful sort of nostalgia before he sighs.]}

Ah, poor Mr. Wiggums. Sadly, he didn't make it. Getting rid of a demon without harming the host can be a bit tricky, but don't worry, I doubt you'll run into any here.

_{[Unless there's an event. Please Maker don't let there be an event.]}

Notebooks make people crack? I'll have to keep that in mind.

[Clementine smirks at him since she's joking like she knows he is People crack for a lot of reasons, but it's got nothing to do with an official notebook. It has to do with who can convince who to give information over one way or another. Sometimes being a child puts her at a disadvantage when it comes to getting information. Sometimes she can play up being 'just a little girl' to get information instead. She does write it all down every last bit. She's not sure if this really fits under the 'zombie' category. They seem too sentient for that, but it's still important for people to know about.

They have motivation. Zombies don't really have any of that. They just try to eat anything that's flesh near them, anything that's making a noise really that's not another zombie.]

So they can kill you, turn you into a corpse, and then use your corpse to sort of live in this world instead?

[Suffice to say, Clementine's not going to get nightmares from this conversation. She does smile a bit at the name before she frowns again.]

Well, if there's an Event from your world, we all might have to run into them here. It's sort of why I'm writing about all the zombies and taking down what you're telling me so people can know how to prepare. Is there any way to defend ourselves from the demons before they can take over someone's body?

_{[Who could resist getting interrogated by a cute kid with a pen at the ready? Clearly Anders can't, since he's apparently getting interviewed, after all.]}

It's possible, but they still have to cross between the Fade and our world to be at their most dangerous. If they showed up in Wonderland, they'd have to take some kind of physical form--they can be killed that way.

_{[He taps his chin. The pragmatic view she has toward self-defense is fair, he can't argue that. There are plenty of threats from Thedas that could be a real problem for people lacking the know-how to protect themselves--the darkspawn event had proved that.]}

You make a good point, my world is just as likely to make a pain of itself as any other. Demons are their own areas of study that could take years to go through, but I can give you the highlights. Some are more crafty than violent and will trick you into letting them in of your own accord. Others prey on certain feelings to find a backdoor--rage demons will target people nursing anger, envy demons to those with feelings of jealousy, that kind of thing.

Having a strong will and knowing your weaknesses are the best ways to resist, really. Should one show up and take over someone here, I'm not sure there'd be a way to stop it short of... you know.

_{[This far into it, he probably doesn't need to sugar coat it for her, but he mimes a stabbing motion anyway.]}

Edited 2017-02-14 10:09 (UTC)

Good. It'd be a lot more difficult if we couldn't kill them, but at least this way... we can defend ourselves if it comes to that. Is there something really effective against them? Like with walkers, you shoot them in the head to kill them.

[Maybe demons have their own weaknesses in physical form or maybe it's just hit them as hard as possible with whatever they can be hit with.

The highlights are good. They're what people will need to know if his world does end up having an Event in this one, and there are demons around because of it. She nods seriously, swallowing thickly. That'd be one helluva an event. People taken over. She wonders how conscious they still are to what's happening to them. It's not like with walkers where they die first so she's pretty sure they're not still aware of what comes after.

She hopes not.]

Short of killing them. Yeah.

So the best way to be protected against them is to know yourself, which... isn't easy. [She doesn't like to self examine. Hell, she's never really had to before. It's always been about survival and then she came to Wonderland. Wonderland gives her time to examine. Memories and feelings try to sneak up on her despite how she fights against it.]

You're a quick study. Not easy to spook, are you?

_{[Offered rhetorically with a hint of drawn-out thought in his voice. He'd expect a kid's eyes to be the size of dinner plates by now, having seen children her age in the Circle wet themselves at the thought of facing a demon in their Harrowing. Aside from her grim expression, she's absorbing it all in like a sponge.

Anders decides then and there he likes her. She's got a grit to her, like Michonne. That kind of thing's hard won, and in his experience doesn't come without a high cost.]}

From what I've learned of your world, I think I'd rather fight these walkers. _{[He angles his head, nose wrinkling faintly thinking of his own Harrowing.]} Demons can figure out your vulnerabilities, that's what makes them truly dangerous, and unfortunately "head" can be rather relative when they manifest in different shapes. Brute force or running away are my personal favorites.

Can't be. I've seen and done a lot of shit. Nothing much spooks me anymore.

[Clementine is certain Wonderland will show her otherwise, and well- Despite all she's seen, she still gets really scared, but she knows what to do. She never lets her fear control her. She can't. She hasn't been able to.

If she'd let her fear paralyze her, she'd be dead.]

The walkers are way easier. They're slow and dumb. When there's a lot of them and you don't have a lot of ability though? It sucks. [She's walked through them before, but they still can kill anyone who walks too fast or who screams. People scream-] I'd probably choose running away. I don't have much for brute force.

I just know how to shoot guns.

Well... that I believe. _{[Steely-eyed earnestness isn't something exclusive to people of a certain age, as Clementine demonstrates.]} Someone so young shouldn't have to be that brave. Ever since meeting Michonne, I've thought your world was an unfairly harsh one to the people who live there.

_{[Like what a world would be like if it were overtaken by a Blight. For a child to have survived all that is no small feat.

He pities her for having to grow up faster than she should have, but at the same time he doesn't because learning to look the bogeyman in the face and shoot him may very well have saved her life and helped get her this far.]}

Never tried using a gun on a demon--we don't have those where I'm from--but it seems like it'd pack quite the punch in comparison to something like a crossbow. Running has my vote, though. You can leave the demons to me.

_{[Consider him on demon duty. He puts on a cocksure smile, clearly more for show than seriously meant.]}

Since we got on the subject of zombies versus demon corpses, would it be easier to continue our conversation in the library?

[It's very harsh, and Clementine grimaces a bit in agreement.] People die all the time. Even people who are good at surviving.

[There aren't any guarantees, but being good at surviving gives her a better edge, a stronger edge, and she latches hold of that for- for some reason. A lot of people have died to keep her alive. They've died because of choices she's made, and it has to mean something. It has to matter.

She smirks at that smile of his. Then she points her finger in his direction.]

Okay. You'll be the prime demon hunter if they ever come through. What do you do to fight demons anyway? [Does he use a crossbow or something else? She smiles a bit.]

I'll be here all day so you can feel free to stop by.

I expect that means something quite different in a place where the dead don't stay dead.

_{[There's a pensiveness to the way he watches Clementine for her answer. In a world where the dead have usurped the living, what does that mean for a child that's barely brushed up against puberty? He'd ask about her family, if it was her father who taught her how to shoot and swear like a little miniature sailor, but he has a feeling the ending to that story isn't a happy one.

Are they ever?]}

I'm all over it. You won't find anyone more knowledgeable about demons from Thedas than myself. Actually, that's a lie, there are other mages more studied up on them, but I've fought my fair share. _{[And then as answer to her question:]} With magic.

Never been formally interviewed before, though... excluding the times I was caught misbehaving and brought to the principal's office. I think it could be fun. Serious subject matter aside. If I get quoted in your paper, do I get an advance copy to read? A name drop in the acknowledgements?

Yeah. If you shoot them in the head before they ever get up or- or while they're dying, they stay dead. Otherwise, they come back as the undead, and you have to put them down while they try to eat you.

[Clementine tries not to think too in depth about whether or not- What happens to the people? Do they leave the body when they die or are they just trapped inside? She doesn't really know. There's no way of knowing without experiencing it herself, and she'd do anything to keep that from happening.]

Magic? That's amazing. [She smiles. Because living the Harry Potter life, it definitely opened her eyes to the awesomeness of magic.]

Hey, there's a first time for everything even powerful magic guys like you. I don't think the principal counts as an interview. [She laughs a little, and the sound surprises her.]

Yes. You get both.

_{[If Anders had had his concerns about what Michonne and Clementine have had to do to stay alive before, he definitely would after what Clementine says. She means it's necessary to kill the brain before a person revives as a zombie. A mercy kill. Had she had to do that? A little girl, making the tough call to put someone out of their misery?

What might be more amazing is that Clementine can keep smiling. It must raise bad memories, talking about zombies like this.]}

I've just met you, but I think you have some impressive qualities of your own that any powerful magic guy would admire. _{[He makes a good-humored sound, just on the softer side of a laugh. Tough as nails, this kid.]} And much nicer to talk to than my superiors.

_{[And generous with her future fame as a monster expert to boot. It seems to him the girl could use a laugh while working on her rather grim assignment; Anders would be happy to try and give her a few more reasons to. He and his endless supply of banter are at your service, Clem.]}

All right, but just know I'm holding you to that. I'll swing by to make sure you're not misquoting me in your soon-to-be bestselling bestiary.

_{[Keep a seat warm for him.]}

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[video] whatever bitter brew you're drinking

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