StarFall/HCC: Zombies Don't Eat Living Flesh

[Phantasm]

On Feb 21, 11:20 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:31:23 +0000 (UTC), Phantasm wrote:
> > New Orleans has been through the worst of things.  Even though Katrina
> > hit several years ago, it still resides in the memories of those who
> > lived through it.  Despite all this, there are several constants in
> > New Orleans that seem to withstand even Random Acts of God: The French
> > Quarter, the oldest part of the city - the *original* city - situated
> > on the only land above sea level; the annual Mardi Gras parades and
> > celebrations in the weekend before Lent; and Voodoo.
>
> I've noticed a leaning lately, among the more creative strain of urban
> fantasy writers, towards Voodoo zombies; not surprising, really,
> considering how deeply the Romero-style vein has been tapped lately.

There were a few reasons I went the Voodoo route.  First, as you said,
the Romero-style is played out.  Of the four entries for the challenge
I see so far, three were flesh-eaters (mine was the fourth).  I wanted
something a little different, and Voodoo-style magically reanimated
corpse is the form I know best.  Second, it sets the stage for later
entries in StarFall that would deal with zombies if I establish it now
that the "zombie apocalypse" is just a myth (Robin and I have
conferred on IRC; if we do use Romero-style critters, we'll probably
be calling them "ghouls" rather than "zombies").

> > As she flitted through the city of the dead, as the streets and
> > alleyways of New Orleans' large above-ground marble mausoleums are
> > known, Niqa couldn't help but feel a sense of forboding.  It was a
> > sense she hadn't felt since she'd been consulted by the Jackson family
> > to prevent someone from doing an authentic remake of the "Thriller"
> > video a few years back.
>
> Nice throwaway detail!  It's stuff like this that makes universes seem
> richer.

Thanks.  That detail was inspired by a joke someone made not long
after Michael Jackson died.  I tend to run in ... unconventional
crowds away from the computer, who consider Crowley and the Golden
Dawn too "mainstream".  One of my friends made a joke about "all the
Voodoo necromancers in Nawlins" converging on Jacko's tomb.


> > "Yes, go my zombies!" the man called out.  "Feast on the city!  For
> > every one that falls to your jaws, a new zombie shall rise!  Soon,
> > very soon, New Orleans will be a *true* necropolis!"
>
> <snip>
>
> > "Ah tol' ya b'fore, Gheda," she told her fallen opponent, "ya can'
> > make zombies make new zombies jus' by *eatin'* folks."
>
> Very well-done!

Thankye.  I hoped it inverted the "flesh-eating" trope nicely enough.