saveyourselves | [Media digest] What does the fox say?

This is the first of what will be our roughly biweekly media posts! With the media starting to play a larger role, the purpose of this post is to be a digest and master post for everything that the media (newspapers, radio, TV, internet, etc) have said and will say. This post covers what gets aired/published about the numbered up until the 4th of August. This includes content created by both players and mods, regardless of if it stems from numbered and their allies, their opponents, or neutral third sources.

GUIDELINES

- You may either link to a post that you made which contained a media voice (like this) or or create small articles/opinion pieces/internet discussions/interviews/statements/etc and put them into the body of the comment, (like this).
- Please use this form:
- Please use the appropriate one of these threads (pre-20/7, 21/7-27/7,28/7-3/8) to link/post your media voices.
- If your media voice talks about a small group of reincarnates or one reincarnate in specific, please make sure that you have their players' permission to have the media talk about them in this way.

THE GENERAL CURRENT STATE OF THE MEDIA

- Both negative and positive voices regarding the numbered can be heard. The positive and neutral ones are still more numerous, but the number of negative sentiments has strongly increased as of very recently. There is talk about them having a startling amount of power that they are hiding and about reincarnate influence behind the scenes, and questioning if they have hidden plans and motifs that are sinister in nature.
- A local Locke newspaper runs a series on the reincarnates that is mostly critical opinion pieces about the numbered as a group. A local Locke radio station, Energy Up, fills its free broadcasting time with more or less fact-based pieces about the reincarnates, laced with gossip and speculations about their mental state and how dangerous they really are to the city. Fox News has run a 3-part reportage about the numbered in both cities in much the same spirit. A couple of other media outlets from both areas generally cover reincarnates and their actions or powers in a negative, sensationalistic, distrustful light, though they don't go out of their way to talk about them. But there still is an equal amount of news outlets that show them in a positive or neutral light.
- Currently, only the Energy Up radio station in Locke and no news outlet in Vegas runs pieces about specific numbered, and only about those that are high-profile in some shape or form - especially flashy, especially odd or powerful, or rich/celebrities/relatives of important people/etc.
- The internet is a vast place as well, and seedlings, conspiracy theorists and many others discuss the reincarnates - they might have fans or vicious haters here, self-proclaimed specialists on the numbered and so on. In general, the attitudes are fairly similar to those in the official media outlets.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Date: 8/3
Type of media/location if applicable: Newspaper/Locke City
Link/Content: The ensuing piece might have gotten a bit more interest as a submission for publication from the same factor that's coloring any post-publication talk about it - the name attached to it is one of a missing Locke City teen. Since the text in itself doesn't prove itself, there's obligatory doubt here and there on everything from whether it's actually from who the writer says they are to whether all of it's a hoax - but it is true, a zombie was brought into one of Locke's hospitals in early June, and Anthony Janvier did see his parents once over the past year...

"My name is Anthony Paul Janvier. I am a zombie--I was seen at [low-end hospital] early in June, where the staff confirmed and admitted that I have no heartbeat and am in a state resembling normal human decomposition.

I have been what I am for more than one full year now. It has meant dropping out of school and going without seeing my parents, first because showing myself as a mutant would mean death for myself and possibly my family and friends, due to Tiny.

Now, it's only because too much has changed. I don't look the way anyone who knew me would remember me. I have also lost both of my eyes and gone blind.

I am not dangerous to anyone. Among other things, I don't eat, brains or otherwise. If I was infectious, the people around me would know by now.

I know that I'm only "alive" still because I have been able to rely on the kindness of my fellow numbered. I turned sixteen in one of their houses. He encouraged me to learn how to cook, although I have not done it ever since the second time I lost an eye. One disguised my appearance when it was still possible so that I could go see my parents. Another one gave me medical treatment when my healing first started to slow down, and another one offered to give me a job. I am currently at my third new home, and I am doing well.

I have been accepting as much help as I have although there is not much that I can contribute in return. I'm weak, and I'm no longer receiving a formal education. There are times that I completely forget where I am when I'm alone -- that is how afraid I am that I am really only worth abandoning. My current guardian is the first person to have reassured me that it doesn't even matter.

From the fire at the Ben family's house in April last year to the attack of the monster snake this March, we were not able to turn to anyone but each other, and we needed people to turn to. We weren't prepared for anything, and we still don't understand why we are the way that we are. Changes often came on us with no warning. If we couldn't get any assistance we needed in hiding ourselves or hiding them, then it's possible that we and our loved ones would be in danger.

We have been able to trust in each other's kindness and generosity, regardless of whether we have been useful or liabilities. We have had to care for each other as people who have become close by a hand of fate's movement, and not due to any interest in a common goal besides living as people.

Being a part of that shared fate is an honor that I haven't deserved, yet I would never choose to lose the changes that I've experienced. (Some of us have lost skills and even memories of being numbered without a cause. I have friends who may not remember me now at all.) Many of them have been painful and traumatic, but others are ones that I am lucky to have received. For instance, I can speak Old Franconian and medieval Latin fluently, thanks to changes.

Far more importantly, however, if I were to lose my link to the numbered, then I would consider it being forced to "give up" at a task that I am humbled to be given. I want to learn to deserve the help that these people have shown they will give to a person who is alone or in need, and to begin to help them as much as they have helped me.

Hopefully, making my statements is a start.

Thank you."

[Media digest] What does the fox say?

no subject