Horror 101, Monday

[chosehumanity]

"We're going to be talking about zombies," Mitchell started. Why, yes, he'd thrown his lesson plan out the window again. "I was going to bring up succubi, but that might be a bit too NC-17 for you lot." Actually, the original topic had been vampires, but see again re: lesson plan out the window.

"The bodies of our dead come back to life with only a fraction of their brains left, if any," he started, "Mindless creatures milling about trying to take a bite out of you. In film, it depends on what you watch, the old ones had the regular shambling kind you could outrun, but we've developed this obsession with fast zombies as well."

He scraped his throat. "It started with Vodou in Haiti, in the way we know it today. They'd say a dead man could be revived by a Bokor to do his bidding, because he was mindless. A bit appropriate to more than just the living dead these days," he cracked, then quickly moved on to the next bit before that could fall, you know, badly. "Although they say that a lot of these so-called zombies were actually based off of mental patients."

He clapped his hands together. "They can be used as a metaphor for the mindless crowds, and for the fear of people with which we can no longer communicate. They are outside of us as much as they're of us."

He rattled off a few classic zombie films while he was at it. "...although I hear you had some sort of thing with them here last year," he hedged, "So if you don't want to sit around for the film or the discussion, feel free to leave."

[[ wait for the ocd up, have at ]]

Comments

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

The lecture was short enough that Alex didn't even pull out a notebook, choosing instead to twirl a pen on his desk while he listened. Of course, that kind of made him look like a mindless zombie but there was plenty on his mind.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Oh look, just the person she was looking for! Emma chittered at Alex from down on the floor, pulling gently on his pant leg with her teeth. She would like to be picked-up, please, before she had to do something drastic like try to climb up him by herself.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, this was not a new occurrence for Alex. The last time, it'd been Effy in the form of a cat who'd wanted to climb on him so he didn't immediately dismiss this...fuzzy thing.

"What?" he asked, polite as always and trying to tug his pants away from those teeth. "You want some food or something?"

No one should ever give him a pet.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

No! Well, yes, Emma rather liked food, but she didn't want it right now. Instead she stood up on her back legs, placing her paws on his leg and chittering. Up!

...Dammit, she missed her powers right about now.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"What, you want me to pick you up?" Alex asked, getting the gist of that gesture. "What for? You could be someone that hates me. There are plenty of those around."

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

The tilt of the head and 'bitch, please' look probably transcended ermine, as it was pure Emma. If she hated him, she just would have divebombed his ankles and made him bleed.

...she wanted to bite his fingers instead. That was how friends who were currently animals expressed that their friends were morons. Lovingly Affectionately. Really.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"All right, fine," Alex said, reaching down and scooping up the ermine before settling her on his desk in front of him. It hadn't been difficult to figure out who this was once he'd done process of elimination. "Better? Anything else I can get you, darling?"

See? He totally figured it out.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Much better, actually. Now Emma could sit on his notebook, and try to bat around that pen he was twirling earlier. Although ear-scratches would not be remiss.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"You know I'm going to take a picture of this, right?" Alex asked, not expecting an answer but already digging for his phone. "It's your own fault for getting yourself turned into something so fuzzy."

He did use his free hand to give her some scritches though.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Well, yeah, Emma had sort of figured he would, but she was pretty and cute, so she didn't mind too much. Besides, she'd get him back whenever the inevitable happened to him.

So instead she'd preen a little, and pose, and possibly lean into those scritches. Because she was an ermine, and could totally deny most of this later.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex snickered and took a few quick shots with his phone before putting it away. He'd pull those out whenever he wanted to make her blush.

"You having fun?" Alex asked, smirking. "Sure you're getting all kinds of attention when you're the size of a thimble."

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

That earned him an attempted nip at his fingers, because she was not thimble-sized. And she was lacking her powers, so no, this was not fun.

Except when she was being adored, of course, but Emma liked being spoiled even when she was human-shaped.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex managed to pull his fingers away at the last second and glared. "If you're going to bite me, I'm gonna put you back down on the floor and stick gum in your fur."

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma flashed her sharp little ermine teeth at him in a snarl. Alex would so go around biting people if he was small and furry, and he knew it.

Still, she'd settle down and chew on his pen while giving him Significant Looks. See? She wasn't some completely unreasonable monster or anything like that.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"The hell are you looking at me like that for?" Alex asked, making a face right back at her. "I'm not scared of you, animal or human and I wouldn't have any qualms about picking up and hanging you upside down."

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

She gave him the best raspberry she could manage as an ermine. He wouldn't dare. She was little and cute and fluffy, and he wouldn't be willing to make a scene in class. Or risk the severely maimed wrists. DEADLY PREDATOR!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, he'd make a scene in class, no problem. Wasn't like he cared that much and if she was going to give him looks? He was going to flick her nose.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma couldn't help it; the animal part of her saw the poking and the challenge and just pounced, intent to wrestle those fingers TO THE DEATH.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex couldn't help the snort of laughter at the intended ferocity and let her wrestle his fingers for the time being. He could ignore the teeth and claws pretty well. It wasn't like it hurt.

She was small enough that he could even tug her around with his fingers, getting even more amusement out of this.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Well, it wasn't like Alex ever objected to a little rough play when she was a person, and Emma's nails were so much smaller right now (although still sharp), and he was a lot bigger, so she wasn't really worried about hurting him.

Except she was not a doll to be moved around! Which meant she had to redouble her attack against his fingers, going after him enthusiastically. Death! Death to fingers!

...she would never in a million years admit to this when she was herself again.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Are you really doing this?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow, still sliding her around but actually wincing at some of the biting now. "If you don't lay off the biting, you're going to end up upside down, Emma."

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma backed off, slightly, but still kept chewing on him lightly. Did he not want to play? He was getting boooooooooooooooooooring, with all his 'being good' and stuff. She was little and cute and furry and going to look at him with big, innocent eyes. He totally couldn't be mad at her!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

She'd get bitchfaced at quite mightily if she called him boring and brought up his being good promise in conjunction. After all, it wasn't like she had room to talk.

Instead, Alex was going to reach behind him for his jacket and drop it on top of her. Oops.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma had made no such corresponding promise, thank you. Although she still needed to talk about that with Alex when she was human again. They were a wonderfully avoiding pair.

The jacket caused mad scrambling as she ran around under it frantically for a moment, before she spitefully started trying to chew her way out. Jerk.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Jerk was a compliment, Emma. Stay that out when you were human and he'd grin smugly at you. Instead, he picked up his jacket to avoid having it eaten before dropping it right back on her.