Horror 101, Monday

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell looked more than a bit less pale today; he had a flush in his cheeks and his motions were fluid, less prone to the occasional shake. At the same time, he was also quieter than usual, a little subdued, and, if you knew how to look for it, guilty. Still, he was standing at the front of the class today, serious, and ready to dive in.

"We're going to start talking about individual monsters and what they mean," he said. "We're going to start with-- werewolves. Lycanthropes. The wolfman." He took a breath. "The idea of werewolves dates back to some of our oldest fears. The idea of losing control, of becoming something other than ourselves, of killing without our own consent. From the outside, it's the fear of monsters in those around ourselves. Lycaon in Greek mythology became what he was because he ate human flesh, because he committed a foul act against nature."

He searched the class with his eyes. "So some considered it a divine punishment. Christian mythology, too, talks about God bearing down his wrath on those who commit evil, turning them into wolves, doomed to suffer and to live with impossible urges." A pause. "Of course, a man called Thiess once claimed that he and his friends were werewolves, sent down by God to strike down evil demons. If nothing else, the mythology of these kinds of creatures is distorted and twisted. Would it be a voluntary acceptance of a devil's favour? Or something involuntary, bestowed on us from up above? Is it just as simple as slipping on a piece of wolfskin? The Hungarians even thought that abusing young children would lead to them becoming werewolves."

"So there isn't a single interpretation of this monster that holds true across the world," he said, "But it all comes back to this fear of the savage in ourselves, of that driven, monstrous thing that simply wants. If you ask a scholar now, they might tell you these ideas were formed because of wolf attacks, but I doubt it's anything that... stark."

He nodded towards the viewing screen at the back. "That brings us to modern times," he said, "We've solidified an idea of the werewolf in the backs of our minds now. Turning only during the full moon, men who had this foisted on them through another werewolf's claw. Silver. Howling up at the moon. If that's the true picture of the werewolf, the Christians might have it right after all."

He shook his head. "Think about it: doomed to head out at every full moon, to sit there and wait for the change to come. Consider the physical changes it would take: A wolf's heart is about two-thirds the size of a human's. But can organs shrink without stopping? In other words, the man might have a heart attack. All of the internal organs are smaller, so while he's having his heart attack, he might be having liver and kidney failure too. And a wolf's vocal chords are far different from our own, so if he goes silent..." Mitchell paused, tapping his fingers against the back of his couch. "In a situation like that? Anyone would die of shock. But if the werewolf is real, that means that all these changes won't kill him. That's the thing about werewolf... lore that I find most remarkable."

"A curse like that would drag him through the fire and keep him alive and even conscious to endure every second. Maybe the Christians would be right after all. Nothing like that could just evolve. If we ever find such a thing as a werewolf, if anyone ever believed there was such a thing, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that they saw in it the finger print of God. It's an idea, isn't it? An impossible lethal curse spread by tooth and claw, victim begets victim begets victim. It sounds so cruel, it's..." Perfect.

Mitchell shook his head. "Anyway," he said, shifting his tone, "So much about werewolf myth. We'll be watching the Man Wolf today, and after that, I want you all to pair up. What is the werewolf to you? Why does the monster scare you? Why doesn't it? Do you think it might exist?" He chewed on his lip. "And what's your inner wolf, you think? That place that is so intense, so driven and savage that it rules out all else."

It was possible that last question was a little more rhetorical than the rest.

[[ wait for the ocd up! ]]

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[chosehumanity]

Wolfishly.

Re: Sign In

[icecoldfrost]

Emma Frost

Re: Sign In

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy Stonem

Listen to the Lecture

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell's a little invested today. Possibly.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

This was a little more talking than he expected from Professor Mitchell so Alex took a few more notes than usual. Most of them were shorthand and rough but they weren't doodles, at least.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy, as usual, wasn't with much of the note-taking, but she was at least listening, and tapping her pen lightly on the paper as if she might start writing something eventually.

Probably wouldn't, but-- Potential was there.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[bitten_notshy]

Jack wasn't afraid of werewolves. They were extinct, and a silver bullet would take a lycanthrope out.

The passion in the lecture, though ... that made him wake up enough to take lots of notes on the what-if, on the theory that a lot of things that weren't supposed to exist persisted in living on.

(Jack knew what a vampire who had fed looked like, but his assumption was that whatever Mitchell had done -- and his speculation didn't go so far as the truth -- it wasn't something to ask about. He could even be wrong, after all.)

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer was taking notes like no tomorrow. The part about the transformation, it hit home for her. Not only when thinking about George, but also with the pain that she felt going to and from her She-Hulk form.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe was taking a lot of notes.

Even for her.

She had known that the change could sometimes be hard on Derek, but she hadn't realized it was so dangerous to his system.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[vanillajello]

Kate was pretty much as distracted as she could possibly be, today.

First of all, there was the discomfort of knowing who was supposed to be in this class – hungover, sleeping through the movie, throwing bits of paper at her – but wasn't.

Then there was Mitchell. Kate was used to giving her mother a once-over every time she saw her, a quick look at the details of the way she carried herself, to determine whether she wasn't actually someone else. Now Kate did the same to everyone important without even noticing she was doing it. And she couldn't help the feeling that there was something off about Mitchell.

And then finally, there was the subject matter. 'The idea of losing control, of becoming something other than ourselves' hit a little too close to home. Kate's forehead met the desk. She really didn't want to be here today.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma was taking excellent notes, like she always did for this class, but she was also keeping half-an-eye on the teacher. His change in demeanor had caught her attention, and now she was mentally filing away the other tiny changes.

If he had been someone she could read easily, she might have been tempted to peek, but he wasn't. Which was only making her more curious, darn it.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[furnaceface]

Jono did, in fact, listen to the lecture, even if it didn't seem to hit as many personal chords as the past two had for him. He did find himself wondering, however, if the pain of a werewolf's transformation compared at all with what he'd felt when his chest had been obliterated.

There. There the lecture went, hitting close to home. Sigh.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[chic-harper.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was a lot of information. Harper was frantically trying to write it all down as she listened to the lecture.

Watch the Movie

[chosehumanity]

Today, it's The Man Wolf with Lon Chaney.

Re: Watch the Movie

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Werewolves weren't something that really bothered Alex so he was more amused and entertained by the movie than looking for anything deep and heartfelt. His mind would probably be changed if he ever met a werewolf but, right now, just entertained.

Discuss

[chosehumanity]

Find a partner and talk about the wolf. Does it exist? Does it scare you? Why would or wouldn't it? What about your savage beast within?

Re: Discuss

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex was scribbling a few more things down while he waited for a partner. The thought of the actual werewolf existing and scaring him wasn't making him think so much as wondering if he had something like his father inside him somewhere. Never knew, after all.

Re: Discuss

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Given Jennifer was actually rooming with a werewolf not too long ago (and indeed, would marry a Man-Wolf in the future), this was a topic she felt comfortable talking about.

Well, everything except maybe the 'Savage Beast Within' part. That scared her a little.

She looked around for a partner that'd be willing to deal with SP.

Re: Discuss

[furnaceface]

Jono had a pen. He was going to tap the cap of the aforementioned pen against his knee and look around for a partner.

Yessir. So that he could talk about his savage beast within, and all that good stuff.

Yep.

Talk to the TAs

[chosehumanity]

Once they ping in.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

Alex was there better late than never, thinking about what her brother would think of today's subject.

Talk to Mitchell

[chosehumanity]

He's looking a little more distant than usual, even with the colour on his cheeks.

Re: Talk to Mitchell

[vanillajello]

"Looks like you're the only one whose ego I'll be growing, after all." Pause. "Jason won't be back for class."

Kate left it up to Mitchell to make the connection between the two statements. She sounded a little distracted, anyway, and she was trying not to look like she'd picked up on anything weird during the lecture.

But it was still weird that it disturbed her that he looked healthier than usual.

OOC

[chosehumanity]

Yes, more poached from the show. If rewritten. But I love that monologue and no one is going to take it from me.

And now to go download the new episode...

Re: OOC

[awakestheghosts]

Oh boy. Chloe really needs to come talk to Mitchell. :) He just keeps stirring up all kinds of things in her mind. :D