Comments for "Because it's not a virus, you moron!"

by **Narshalla** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 3:46 am

Hi, I started a new thread herethat will hopefully become a group write.

The basic biology of the process is outlined rather thoroughly, though I've left quite a bit of room to play.

And I think I've done an excellent job of explaining why you should be afraid of bites but not of blood splatter, something that I have never seen in any other story, though you are right, I certainly haven't read all of them, or anything close to all of them.

Also, in case you didn't pick up on this, the reason all of the information about the infection process is posted is because it was posted by someone who hacked "Narshalla's" account, which did not happen IRL.

So, feel free to join in, but please, try not to tell about anything big enough to affect that the internet goes down or that we have to start making up reasons why it hasn't!

by **MaconCJ7** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 4:01 am

by **Narshalla** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 4:30 am

Feel free to talk amongst yourselves or tell me that I'm messed up, if you choose, but if you post in the other thread, please keep it "in character," okay?

And in case you haven't guessed, "Narshalla" won't change her password, or it won't be good enough, and he'll hack back in and let us know when it will all start going downhill on the macro scale, instead of the micro scale it is now.

Thanks!

by **Narshalla** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 4:31 am

Thank you for the bunny, Macon. I like bunnies.

And pancakes, too. They're both delicious!

by **MaconCJ7** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 5:38 am

No, I really had no idea what you were talking about. It wasn't until I started this reply that I noticed you had a link to it in your original post. And now I have an idea of what you are talking about. Glad you like pancakes though, the world would be a better place if everyone started their day with pancakes.

by **MaconCJ7** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 6:09 am

Interesting start of a story, pretty open ended, which is good. I'm not a writer of any sort, so I won't be making any posts, but I will check in to see how it's rolling.

by **FrANkNstEin** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 6:51 am

Yeah, i like the start too!

I might jump in with a contribution or five at a later time, doesn´t look like i can come up with something that fits in right now.

by **dantheremaining** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 9:43 pm

so...is the first post explaining the infection process just an explanation of how you want the story to go, or is it part of the story? I'd be down to contribute, but I'm kind of confused.

by **Narshalla** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:39 am

dantheremaining wrote:so...is the first post explaining the infection process just an explanation of how you want the story to go, or is it part of the story? I'd be down to contribute, but I'm kind of confused.

It's part of the story.

Someone hacked into my account (which did not happen IRL) and let us know what all was coming.

At this point, if you want to join in and can't think of anything to say, why not write something that effectively points out that the person who posted that was lying, it really was me, and I must be smoking something to come up with that stuff.

by **Narshalla** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:42 am

And part of the reason I started it like that is that it would be nice if this group write lasted longer than a month.

So far, they've all been fantastic, and I've enjoyed reading them, but the way things crashed so fast, it didn't really make sense that the internet would still be up a month into the crisis.

Unless, of course, the internet really is powered by the magic of Nyan Cat!

by **dantheremaining** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:52 am

Interesting. Never done a group write before, but it sounds fun. I will, however, wait for someone else to take the first strokes here...

by **FrANkNstEin** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:43 am

Writers muse struck me half an hour ago so i´ve put something up.

Damn, i haven´t written anything story-like in ten years or so, especially not in english. Hope it´s bearable...

Edit: Oh yeah, not to forget: I´m intentionally pretending that i haven´t read the information spilled thru narshallas account by the hacker for now, in case anyone is wondering. Kinda silly since it´s in the same thread, but meh... it can´t hurt if the reader knows more then the protagonsists of the story.

by **Shanna_Redwind** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:04 am

If you wanted things to continue after the point that the traditional internet was down, you could invent some sort of satellite messaging system that the people involved in this thread have on a tablet device. Like a combo between text messages and e-mails that will work as long as the satellite is still orbiting and the tablets can be charged somehow. We'd exchange contacts just before the net went down and things could continue.

Just a suggestion

by **Ike** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:19 am

I like this idea, what kind if time line are you working on here. How fast or slow should it go? Like 28 days later fast or MJOTZY(kinda a down fall of a few months)?

by **Narshalla** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:50 pm

Ike wrote:I like this idea, what kind if time line are you working on here. How fast or slow should it go? Like 28 days later fast or MJOTZY (kinda a down fall of a few months)?

I don't know . . .

You know, it occurs to me that, if there really was a zombie virus, maybe it could end up being mostly contained to a few areas, and only the places it was deliberately spread would have problems.

I mean, that's not good theater, but look at things like rabies, TB, West Nile Virus, or even Ebola -- they exist, and when they flair up, it's bad, but by and large, it's not something that most people bother paying attention to on a day-to-day basis.

by **Ike** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:33 pm

But really all it would take is for one person to get away from ground zero and spread it to a major population zone and it would spread like wildfire. Have you seen contagion yet? I think that movie is highly possible with a highly contagious pathogen or in this case prion

by **Narshalla** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 2:58 am

Ike wrote:But really all it would take is for one person to get away from ground zero and spread it to a major population zone and it would spread like wildfire. Have you seen contagion yet? I think that movie is highly possible with a highly contagious pathogen or in this case prion

Maybe, but the virus in Contagion was air-born. This is much more analogues to something like rabies, which is also spread via bites, is endemic to most of the world, and until recently, has been fatal 100% of the time. But how many active cases are there every year? More in developing countries than here, but still, not many. because people take measures against transmission that are so routine that most don't even realize that they are. For instance, never play with racoons, cover your trashcans tightly, and get your pets vaccinated, don't pet strange animals -- none of these sound like countermeasures, but they are, and they are so ingrained that we don't even think about them any more.

by **MaconCJ7** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 5:56 am

Narshalla wrote:
Ike wrote:But really all it would take is for one person to get away from ground zero and spread it to a major population zone and it would spread like wildfire. Have you seen contagion yet? I think that movie is highly possible with a highly contagious pathogen or in this case prion

For instance, never play with racoons, cover your trashcans tightly, and get your pets vaccinated, don't pet strange animals -- none of these sound like countermeasures, but they are, and they are so ingrained that we don't even think about them any more.

Counter measure, common sense, same same.

Not petting strange animals is just normal. Strange being relative to your location/occupation. Some areas of the world have hyena's for pets, but I wouldn't recommend walking up to one and petting it. That said, we don't really have normal countermeasures to stop you from getting bit by a random dude on the street. Sure, we all have our bubble, but it's bigger in rural areas than it is in urban life. Folks in the city are just too used to being crammed up against one another. If someone wanted to bite you, they just have to lean over and take out a chunk.

The ability to stop the spread is more or less dependent on how quick the disease takes hold. If it's instant, bystanders/first responders could fall victim quite easily. If it's dormant for a while, the victim may easily bleed out from the wounds, die of complications, get hit by a bus, or it'll be the equal of rabies and just be an annoyance to the uninfected. The *cure* might be just as simplistic as it has been for rabies in times past. You get infected, you get shot.

"Love you Grandpa" Bang!

by **Narshalla** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:58 am

If anyone was wondering why I keep bringing up the OWS movement, I just wanted to let you know that to me, a large gathering of people living in tents in the middle of a huge city just seems to be the blatantly obvious place for something like this to blow up.

by **sql_yoda** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:22 am

I support you and the idea of a groupwrite, but I am saddened that zs contributors are not usually predisposed to sustain a thread like this for long. If you have a story you want to share, they are very supportive and sometimes "micro-fanbases" can develop, but on average they don't really engage in birthing fiction.

by **Narshalla** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:27 am

sql_yoda wrote:I support you and the idea of a groupwrite, but I am saddened that zs contributors are not usually predisposed to sustain a thread like this for long. If you have a story you want to share, they are very supportive and sometimes "micro-fanbases" can develop, but on average they don't really engage in birthing fiction.

Well, I hope you'll join!

by **MaconCJ7** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:38 pm

Narshalla,

sql_yoda just gave you a great opportunity to expand on or throw factual evidence into the story. I'm thinking the things that he just said should have been at least mentioned in your post. Very minimal, "Sorry you pissed yourself brother, I hope that chick whom's number you got doesn't notice." But at least something. On this board, we notice when somebody says they're about to die.

Not saying your last input wasn't informative, as it was, but to keep with the realism of the forumesque it's in, you still have time to edit before the next response...

by **Narshalla** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:57 pm

MaconCJ7 wrote:Narshalla,

sql_yoda just gave you a great opportunity to expand on or throw factual evidence into the story. I'm thinking the things that he just said should have been at least mentioned in your post. Very minimal, "Sorry you pissed yourself brother, I hope that chick whom's number you got doesn't notice." But at least something. On this board, we notice when somebody says they're about to die.

Not saying your last input wasn't informative, as it was, but to keep with the realism of the forumesque it's in, you still have time to edit before the next response...

Actually, I typed my entire post out before he posted, but forgot to hit 'submit' before I went off to do something else. When I came back, I saw my post and submitted it without looking.

by **Shanna_Redwind** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:42 pm

Maybe things are actually going to start happening now. I heard on the news yesterday that a couple of policemen really did get bitten in Vancouver at one of the Occupy sites. See... this is how it starts..