fandomhigh | Horror 101, Monday

"Today is the day of your final," Mitchell intoned, then clapped his hands, grinning. "We'll be starting off with a few written questions. But after that, I've got something else for you."

He dumped a stack of papers on his desk. It, and several other flat surfaces in the area - including some of the students' desks - had acquired a cup of tea.

"We've talked about a great many fears over the past few weeks," he continued, "But the main one, the most quintessentially human one is the fear of death. The fear of being gone from this Earth, from what we are, the whole lot. Most of our fears come down to that: death."

"So to finish up your final," he continued, sitting down, "I've invited a friend in to talk about it. While you're writing, I want you all to come up with one question you'd like to ask about death, and she will answer it." He peered into the room, searching for Chloe ~~if she was there~~ and smiled slightly. "Don't worry, she doesn't bite."

He tapped his pen on the desk. "Now, get started! You've got thirty minutes."

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Like you're scared of dying.

It's your last chance.

Featuring three very important questions.

Which monster do you identify with most? What does it stand for? Which part of their myth seems most plausible to you, or even most fitting?

What phobia would you say you have? Does it limit you? Would you and have you watched a film about it, and what did it do to you?

or

Answer the same for a phobia that interests you most, if you won't talk about yourself.

What film or book or story do you find defining for horror, for fear? What do you think that says about you, or about the world?

One question you'd ask about death. Ask it!

[[ please wait for our guest to ping in! ]]

When they ping in. ~~This was here all along.~~

Edited 2010-04-19 06:03 (UTC)

He's here one last time! ... Until summer semester starts!

I don't want it to be the end of term yet!

And now I've got Howl stuck in my head. Dammit, Mitchell.

Also, much love to

thatsamilkshake for playing our mystery guest!

Edited 2010-04-19 10:09 (UTC)

Effy Stonem

Alex Karev

On the plus side of things, the chocolate had easily washed out of Alex's hair and off his skin with a long shower. On the minus side, he was sporting some dark bruising around his eye and a cut on his cheek.

Fighting during a fire drill and showing up to his first final looking battered hadn't been the plan but at least he was there and half listening to what the professor was saying.

Alex took some time with this one before deciding he identified most with a werewolf. He didn't particularly like the comparison but with the way his temper was, it worked. So, he wrote a semi detailed answer about wearing two faces, being mild mannered (for the most part) most of the time and then having some trigger flip his switch and sending him into angry outbursts that small percent of other times.

The myth part threw him a bit since he really didn't think it sounded plausible to be triggered by the moon but he could see even a monster, even a werewolf still holding onto some of his old feelings and recognizing someone he or she might have loved or cared about even at their most violent.

Oh, a question that asked him about his own phobias. Great. Alex had to think on this one too.

Finally, he jotted down a few things about having a fear of losing control. He explained that he didn't mean in werewolf terms but more in terms of his life. He didn't want his life to spiral so far out of control that he'd have to depend on someone else to make his decisions.

It seemed like a safer topic than his father or vampires. He added a few more details about seeing movies about that sort of mental illness and not really being affected because he tried to tell himself it wouldn't happen to him.

The first thing that came to Alex's mind was Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/). He scrawled an answer about how it contained no monsters save for the one inside us all and how even the most innocent of people can be capable of insanity, madness and a motivation to kill.

Really, Alex thought that said a lot about him. He didn't want to detail it but he wrote about how it pretty much said that supposed fictional monsters weren't what he worried about. It was the capability of humans that unnerved him.

Chloe Saunders

Chloe was a bit worried about the part of the final where someone was going to talk about death and being dead. However, she caught Mitchell's smile and knew that she would be okay and that this wouldn't be someone trying to hurt her.

Chloe was here and a little nervous about the final.

Jack Priest

Jack raised an eyebrow at Alex when he noticed the bruising, and dashed off a quick note, then slid it toward Alex's seat. It was probably a risk to pass notes on an exam day, but ignoring it would just feel odd.

Does the other guy look worse?

Alex glanced at Jack then at the note before reading it. If he smirked, it was brief and gone before he started writing.

I think so. He was bigger than me but it was I'm pretty sure I busted his nose and bruised his junk if I aimed right. Hard to see in the dark.

He slid the note back to Jack.

Jack hesitated before deciding to risk an honest answer.

I would say my largest fear is of being abandoned by people I care about. I don't believe that's listed as a phobia, and I can't think of a film about it offhand. (Though I'd watch one if it existed, and probably come out of it none the worse.) It doesn't particularly limit me, but it does influence how I interact with those around me. There's not a monster, real or imagined, that could possibly be as bad as being left all alone.

This was an easier question for Jack to answer.

Frankenstein is a defining horror story to me. It shows how the greatest monster is human fear and human intolerance, which are worse than anything made from corpses in a lab. The monster in the story is horrific, but the way the people around him react -- with fear, by forming a mob, and (on the part of his creator) by disowning him -- shows the worst side of human nature. By treating the monster with fear and disgust, humans made a gentle being into a monster. It's a fantasy, but it shows something about how the world as a whole treats things that cannot be easily understood.

Jennifer Walters

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Horror 101, Monday

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