{Dear Internet: You are very good at spreading rumors.

[thisismadfreaky]

Who: Cisco & YOU!
Where: The Republican National Convention
When: August 4-8
Rating: C for Conspiracy? TBD will edit as needed
Summary: Cisco is a paranoid conspiracy blogger and the best place to get a scandal scoop is a political convention. Come talk craziness with him!
The Story:

Early in the event
{Rumors are more exciting than the truth

Cisco may seem out of place in a political convention, considering his wild views and takes on everything from the medical system and government agencies, but honestly, it's the perfect place for him to be. In a world where people rarely gather in numbers above a couple dozen because of the risk presented for it, this little political shindig is the perfect place to get the scoop on what's really going on behind the scenes. Ask the right question and trip up the right politician and scandal of the decade might not even be enough to cover it.

Mostly, he can be found chatting off the ear of anyone that will give him the time of day or trying to schmooze his way into the more affluent circles to hear the good gossip. He'll curb his conspiracy nut talk enough to slide in, mostly unnoticed, and try to turn the conversation to something a little more hot-button when it feels right. Something like "Don't you ever wonder what made us decide it was okay to have every move we make tracked and traced by the government?" or "Reservoir conditions, what an anomaly, huh?" ought to do it.

Late in the event
{Too little, too late, and I told you so

There's no 'I told you so' quite like needles full of live Kellis-Amberlee being found in the middle of a packed convention center. If there was even the smallest sliver of doubt in mind about his own assumptions before, this certainly killed all of it. Sometimes being right really sucks!

Cisco's definitely not going to be hiding away in the safety and sanctity of his hotel room while something bigger is going on, though. So you can be sure to find him poking around where one of the needles was found, trying to see what he might be able to put together about the how's and why's and who's of the situation.

Comments

[kid_flash_found]

"They probably think they're protecting us from whatever it is they know," Bart agreed, but sighed. "What I wouldn't give to have even an hour of uncensored access to their records. WHO, too, probably."

[thisismadfreaky]

"Protecting us by lying to us isn't really so noble." But it does sound exactly like the way the CDC would handle things. "That is quite a wish, my man. One none of us will ever be so lucky to see come true."

[kid_flash_found]

"But we can dream, right?"

Bart shrugs. "There's got to be a lot of things that they're keeping a lid on to prevent another group of dumb college kids from doing more stupid things in name of the man or whatever you want to call it."

[thisismadfreaky]

"Yeahhh," He grins. "Nobody can take those away from us."

He sobers a bit and nods, "Yeah, no doubt. Still makes my skin crawl, thinking about all the things they could be hiding that we deserve to know."

[kid_flash_found]

"Well, people were convinced for decades pre-Rising that the government was hiding the truth about aliens. Just sub in zombies and it's about the same," Bart said.

"Which, actually kinda makes me wonder if ET has the cure..."

[thisismadfreaky]

He laughs a little and shakes his head, "You know, you might be onto something there." Whether that's a joke or legitimate agreement might be up for debate.

[kid_flash_found]

"On the other hand, they may be too busy doing anal probes and mutilating cattle." A beat. "Hey, do you think there've been any cases of that since the Rising? Cattle mutilation? And how might you tell, considering that they're above the amplification threshold?"

He's actually trying to think about whether or not a zombie cow might function like that. It would be interesting to see...and maybe make ratings.

"On the other hand, the majority of things ET was supposed to be up to makes me think that the ones visiting us are the equivalent of drunken frat boys or something. I mean, really? If you can travel interstellar distances, why would you spend your time doing flybys of the primitives and running bogus tests on ignorant yokels?"

[thisismadfreaky]

He tips his head a little and gives a sort of facial shrug. "I dunno. It'd be kinda hard to tell, like you said. I'm not quite keen on getting around any of them to find out. I'll leave that to you Irwins." He may talk about a lot of crazy theories, but the Irwins are the ones that would ever have a chance of proving some of those.

"Even aliens get bored now and then," He chuckles. "And it could be some sort of weird social experiment."

[kid_flash_found]

It barely takes him a moment to formulate a reply to that last bit.

"I thought that was Australia."

[thisismadfreaky]

There's a bark of a laugh. "Australia is an experiment in insanity."

[kid_flash_found]

"And yet. Apparently marsupial zombies don't attack their joeys when they're still in the pouch. We could learn things to keep people safer.

"I'd kinda like to go there, someday. Maybe do some kind of globe-trotting to see how other countries manage. Maybe zombies demonstrate different behaviors in different places..."

[thisismadfreaky]

"Yeah, I wonder why that is? Nothing like that's been observed in any other animals, right?" He tips his head a little, face scrunched in thought.

He nods, "That would be interesting. I'd follow the hell out of that, if you ever do it."

[kid_flash_found]

"What, wouldn't want to try to come with and handle the science side of things?"

He considered. "It's probably years away even if I could do it. Maybe a coordinated effort with a global group of Irwins to perform actual experiments on local populations of zombies."