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Horror 101, Monday

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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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?

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.

"So," Jack said, plopping down next to Alex, "do you think the wolfman is going to get you?"

There was a bitter irony inherent in him asking it. If he were psychic ~~or had read his own canon~~ he would have laughed.

"God, I hope I go out better than that," Alex said, making light of the question and shaking his head. "I think I'm more liable to get caught by some femme fatale. Can't keep my hands to myself."

Or something. Alex shook his head again. "Wolfman's not something I tend to worry too much about. I can't help but think of it as a big dog with rabies. Stereotypes."

"You could be hot by a jealous husband?" Jack asked lightly.

"And it's not a thing I fear either. They're meant to be extinct. And even if they weren't -- there would be something horrible in being taken by a dog." He let one shoulder rise and fall. "Stereotypes."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Alex said in response to that first question. "But yeah, I agree. I think of dogs as things girls coo over and make messes all over the rug. I can't think of one as scary. Even movies haven't helped with that. They're more...exaggerated there that it's almost too much to imagine being real. Absurd in some ways."

*Facepalm* SHOT. Not hot. Ahem.

Jack nodded. "What about the other thing, though?" he asked, since they'd reached agreement on the first point. "The idea of the monster within? I admit I'd worry more if I thought I'd be turned into a werewolf than I would if I merely thought I might be killed by one."

Being in control was rather desperately important to Jack.

"Yeah, I could...see that being a problem." Alex didn't so much mind not being in control but he didn't want to turn into his father when he lost control, using his hands and words to hurt those close to him. That was what scared him. "Wonder if you have to be a literal werewolf to act like one what with the losing control and all?"

"I don't think Mitchell wants us to think so," Jack said, with a passing glance to the professor. "It's a frightening idea that there's something inside us that, if it came out, would just destroy. I don't know if I have that."

He hoped not. But he also knew what he could do if anyone he loved was hurt.

Alex kept quiet on the subject of having it or not. He was pretty sure he did. Had reasons to think so, in fact. Not something he liked to think about.

"I guess for some people it's more obvious?" he guessed. "And some people have to be provoked excessively. There's always going to be the chance, I guess, of that happening."

"You never know what you'll do at the edge until you're there," Jack said, not sure he even believed that.

"And you don't need the terrible looking face or fur to do that," Alex said, smiling a bit. "I dunno, if I were ever confronted with a werewolf, I'd be more stuck on the giant, killer dog aspect rather than the loss of control. The more physical thing rather than the fact that he's a loose cannon. Take that away and make someone focus just on the loose cannon part, the person becomes a little scarier."

"You're right," Jack said, hand going to his chin in thought. "If you look at it as, 'three days a month you'll want to hunt and kill' it's much more frightening than 'three days a month you'll turn into a dog'."

... which made his lack of fear of vampires utterly rational, yes. Jack shoved that thought down.

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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~~.

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.

It was like taking candy from a baby, really. How did anyone expect Emma to resist?

"Tell me about the savage beast, darling," she announced, taking a seat across from Jono. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

//Erm.//

Of course, it figured, it took his old headmistress to knock Jono completely out of words. Or out of self-pity. Or both?

//Mine isn't so much a savage beast as it is a clumsy bloody oaf wot knocks down entire buildings,// Jono attempted. Because that seemed... Well. Safer. Safer than what, he wasn't entirely certain. Possibly.

"So you huff and you puff and you blow the house down, but you didn't really mean to?" Emma asked archly. "Really, Jono, I think there's more bite to you than that."

//When there needs to be,// Jono allowed. There was a wary sort of frown lurking behind those words, as though he was trying his damnedest to come up with a situation where he actually would need more bite than it took to flatten a great bloody building quite by accident. //How much bite do yer suppose I ought to have?//

"Enough that when it happens again, it wasn't an accident," Emma replied, smiling sharply. "The savage beast might be all about loss of control, but when we're driven to the edge, our choices are usually utterly deliberate."

Jono eyed her for a moment, picking his mind for something to reply with that wouldn't come across as some desperate plea to be anything but what he was. That much couldn't be changed. He'd accepted that. He also had a terrible tendency to whine about it, and he was aware that Emma, any incarnation of Emma, didn't want to hear it.

//I've hurt people with this before,// he settled on. //I hurt somebody that I would give all I ever was to be able to make my peace with, but I haven't got it in me t'do so. When all is said and done, Emma, I'd rather people not be hurt again because of me, accident or otherwise. Looking like a monster is no excuse for allowing myself to behave like one.//

"But is a werewolf monstrous if it's just acting according to its nature?" Emma asked. "You can't blame a cat for eating a mouse."

//Fortunately, we're not werewolves.// Jono's arms crossed over his chest. //If we have th'capacity to keep ourselves and our powers under control, then 'but we're mutants' is hardly any excuse for lettin' it get away from us. So far as I can gather, werewolves don't exactly have that luxury.//

Edited 2010-01-18 20:48 (UTC)

"That's the point, isn't it? Things we wouldn't do normally that we can be driven to?" Emma pointed out, flipping through her notes. "'That place that is so intense, so driven and savage that it rules out all else,' that's what Mitchell said. I can see why people pushed to that limit might give rise to the legends of werewolves if they went violent."

That, and Emma knew Hank. He did kinda look were-ish.

Jono nodded faintly, furrowing his eyebrows. Of course Emma had a point. When did Emma not have a point? It brought to mind the stories that Jubilee would tell of her time with the X-Men, of the things that her friend, Logan, was capable of.

//It's a limit I pray I'm never driven to, then.// His potential frightened him at the best of times, after all. //Animalistic rage in a human is one thing. But put that same anger into th'hands of a person with power...//

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