2019-10-17 - Hidden Content: Episode II

The camera shows part of a bed and a wall behind it. On the wall are a few posters of classic rock and roll hall of famers and a little one of an obscure anime you probably haven't ever heard of squeezed in between them. A few seconds roll by, and then a brunette in pajamas jumps into the frame, landing on the chocolate-brown bedspread. She flops onto her stomach with a broad smile and her chin tucked into her palms, her feet lifted up off the bed behind her.

"What's UP, Crazies? Welcome to another episode of Hidden Content!" Cue the generic spooOOOooooOOOoky intro music that may or may not be a song by the Amulet called Sing You To Your Death as an X-Files-lite montage of images flash by. Totally not derivative. When the camera comes back, Cameron is sitting up, one leg tucked under her, the other dangling off the edge.

"First off, let me welcome you back to this week's episode. It's gonna be a bit longer than usual because we have a lot of ground to cover to make up for lost time, and because I feel I... have just a lot to get off of my chest." She looks away, staring at something out of frame, but when her gaze returns to the camera, there's a smile.

One leg lifts up at the knee, revealing her feet in fuzzy yellow bunny slippers, pointing a finger down at it. "Let my thank my sponsor, Dylan, for getting me hooked on comfortable, and stylish slippers. I don't think he watches, so I have no trouble telling you guys that he has these Godzilla slips that I am totally gonna nick next time I'm at his place."

"Now, you may be wondering 'What up with the jammies, Cam?', and that's because a lot of very unsettling things have been happening lately, and when these kinds of things disturb my aura, I like to go to a place of comfort and smooth out the rough edges. So let's dive right in and talk about what happens when you get taken to the Spirit World..."

"Basically, no one will notice. Or give a shit. It doesn't matter if you walked into the bathroom of a diner and never come back out, or if you went on a little grocery store run. They will say you slipped out when no one was looking. That you moved away. You ran away. You must have just decided to embrace the vagabonding lifestyle and left all your possessions at your now-abandoned house and your untouched bank account is proof that you have embraced the Amish lifestyle."

"People just aren't equipped to deal with some serious shit. The brain has a funny way of coping and covering for things they don't want to acknowledge."

"From your perspective, you may not even notice anything weird at first. But shit will get trippy. Every time is different, but... the gist of it is that everything could be alive and might want to murder you. Spirits aren't like us. They don't have complex emotions and most are driven by single-mindedness. A lot of them feed off of us. And if you just up and land in the Spirit World without doing anything on your own? Means something probably took you, and bad shit is about to happen."

"Um..." The brunette reaches up to flick her hair back over her shoulders. "So we should talk about how to survive? It's kind of like being in a horror movie, except you're not the main character, you're the slutty girl or the comic relief..."