Horror 101, Monday

[chosehumanity]

"Persecution is not new," Mitchell began. Why, yes, the Raven-Max thing had been resolved, he'd picked that up, but he was still in a mood. "...and as to how this applies to the previous lessons, see this as your first witch class." See? That worked. "Persecution," he began again, "Is hardly new. Fears, horror, it causes people to behave in strange ways. Something odd happens, someone gets killed, someone gets hurt, and suddenly everyone's jumping at shadows. The people who wind up suffering, are those of us who are strange. Off, somehow. Away from the norm."

Mitchell had no issues. None at all.

"The witch trials are the easiest example of this," he said, nearly poking a hole in the blackboard as he made notes. "It's funny, because in the 8th century, belief in witches was actually outlawed, you see? But it never kept anyone. Something would happen, like the plague, and someone else would see some political gain or something, and whip everyone up into a frenzy. They'd run around and devise all kinds of bizarre tests, like throwing women into the water, just to see if they were witches. And then of course they'd be burned at the stake."

He took a moment to eye that particular note on his blackboard. "...Anyway," he started, "how this links back to horror in fiction is that people are always terrified of chaos," he marked that word big time, "While at the same time they all fall into it. I mean, what is persecution but organized chaos? You pinpoint someone to blame and then rip them out of the house. And then another one. And then another one. It's this cycle that keeps feeding itself. Hence the Monster from meta for Frankenstein being forced to flee from monsters himself. It's a common theme, that way."

He dropped the chalk and turned around. Listed off a couple more movies that ended in or featured running someone out of the house with torches and pitchforks. "...You can even pull it into perspective with today. You know, stars and the papparazzi and that sort of thing. People spiralling into chaos after every incident." He dusted off his half-gloved hands by wiping them off each other. "So we'll be talking about persecution. Who knows what it feels like to be persecuted? Have you ever been drawn into a mob, or felt the need to? How did it feel?"

At least he was getting less overcompensate-y about it all?

"And we'll watch some film, of course." Meta for Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch. Oh yeah. He was on a roll today.

[[ ocd up, have at! ]]

Comments

Re: Discuss

[icecoldfrost]

<<I can still he~ar youuuuu!>> She was cheerful when she was tormenting Tony, apparently.

"And it only takes a teensy tweak." Emma held up her thumb and forefinger barely an inch apart. "A non-verbal reminder that we're all supposed to love one another."

Re: Discuss

[wantstodirect]

Then stay out of my head! What would make her stay out of his head? Naked pictures? Probably not. Then he had an idea. He thought about eating one of Karla's cookies. He focused on the taste and texture and the whole experience and tried as hard as he could to send it at Emma. He wasn't sure if she could pick up taste and all that, but it was worth a shot.

"Wouldn't work," he said out loud. "You'd get people trying to 'fix' their family and friends to save them from Hell. Because they love them."

Re: Discuss

[icecoldfrost]

Pick up taste? Not so much. But Tony probably wasn't expecting Emma to burst out in telepathic laughter as she picked up the overall experience.

<<Oh, that's fantastic,>> she sputtered, trying to not completely crack-up in giggles. <<Most people just fall back on singing 'row row your boat' or 'itsy bitsy spider' to make me go away. Ten points for creativity, Mr. Foster. Although next time I am put-out with you, I shall simply slip Karla-cookies into rehearsal.>> And, well, anyone else who ate them would just be collateral damage.

"Then turn me, or someone like me, loose where we can do the most damage," she said, wriggling her fingers at him. "I'm a finder and keeper of secrets, but maybe their leader has been siphoning funds, or has a deliciously illicit liaison. There's more than one way to spin a mob in another direction."

Re: Discuss

[wantstodirect]

Mental sigh. Do the nursery rhymes work?

There was probably something wrong with unleashing Emma on the assholes of the world, but Tony couldn't think of it right now. "Maybe," he said out loud. "But what about the worlds that aren't 'lucky' enough to have one of you?"

Re: Discuss

[icecoldfrost]

<<Until I get so annoyed with them that I earworm you back with something disgustingly pop-ish from 1999,>> she admitted. <<But it's a good way to make me look for amusement elsewhere.>>

"Well, there is only one of me," she replied, beaming brightly. "And I'd never even met another telepath before coming here; I thought I was the only one."

"But for those of you with scruples, I do believe this is where the plucky young reporter with more sass than sense can be called upon to expose the hypocrisy, hopefully, and save the day."

Re: Discuss

[wantstodirect]

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream....

"Does stuff like that actually work in the real world?" Tony wondered aloud.

Re: Discuss

[icecoldfrost]

Someone just earned himself a mental raspberry, yes.

"How should I know?" she asked, spreading her hands in mock-surrender. "To me, the real world is my powers."

Re: Discuss

[wantstodirect]

"I meant the plucky young reporter stuff," Tony said. "Unless you have a secret identity you're not sharing?" That came with a mental image of Emma as Vanessa Saturn.