Chapter 4 | Rest Period I
"Horror? What's so great about it?"
Beacon Academy was a school where students from all 'round the world came to study to become professional huntsmen. And sure, while that sounded prestigious as it could get, it was still a school, so the kinds of things you'd see in schools elsewhere would be present here.
What could she possibly be talking about? Well, it's just the usual; truancy, couples, alcohol, bullies, and even detention. Yang and Nora had gotten detention before, what with them having started a fight once (for the 'fun' of it, they said).
And now? For her to get one too? Come on! That just doesn't seem right! She's a good kid!
Somehow, somewhere, she can imagine a person rolling their eyes at her when she thought that, calling her out for having been part of a terrorist group prior to enrolling in Beacon. Blake flinched at that. There was no arguing that… but still!
Regardless, complaining was not on her mind. Not at all. Doing so against Miss Goodwitch sounded like a real great way to get herself murdered without actually being murdered. So, she did the smartest, self-preserving thing possible—keep quiet.
After they were chewed out by her in the discussion room, they moved to her office, which was humble in size and simple in design; grey walls and a black ceiling. Pendant lights shaped like large light bulbs hung from the ceiling. There was a wooden desk, a comfy black chair behind it, with bookshelves pushed to the wall behind. Between each bookshelves was a rectangular window that provided a view of the courtyard down below. Two black arm chairs sat side-by-side in front of the teacher's desk.
All in all, it was a comfy room. One that she found herself liking almost immediately. Although, for the fact of whom it belonged to, it was also terrifying to be here. Maybe she'd survive jumping out the window…
"So, Miss Belladonna and Mister Arc," both students flinched at her tone. Even with minimal effort, she managed to look and sound so intimidating, sitting behind her desk. "I must admit, out of all the students in this school to have displayed some misbehaviour, you two are almost at the bottom of the list."
"Um. Thank you?"
"And yet, here you two are, in my office after almost disrupting the peace in the library with your raucous screaming," had she been that loud? No way! Those rooms were soundproofed! Maybe she'd just been walking in front of their room at the time. "Fortunately, you hadn't been heard by the others," she sighed in relief. "But what do I find when I come in? Instead of two teenagers getting frisky—"
Her face burned red. "We weren't doing that!"
"—I find the two of you playing something silly, in what should be a place for studying," her eyes narrowed. "Care to explain?"
Despite her demanding tone, Blake faltered in her place. She understood that neither of them had any leeway to evade this interrogation, but something far more pressing was on her mind. Namely, the fact that she promised to keep Jaune's hobby a secret.
Sure, Jaune wasn't the closest of friends, but they were getting there. After all, what else could explain away the fact that the two of them were occasionally meeting one another outside of classes? Heck, they even had breakfast together one time. You don't just do that with a stranger.
And even their sessions of experiencing horror stories were becoming a kind of fun. Sure, it was mostly at her expense, but she'd never lie about finding some strange sense of enjoyment in them compared to all the stories she'd ever read in the past. She would readily admit to having loved it, even if a little.
All of this was Jaune's secret. One he shared with her (because she forced herself in, but thankfully something he'd come to accept in the end), and one he asked her to keep quiet from everyone else. And Blake understood what that felt like. To be keeping secrets so close to the chest that she was simply unwilling to share with anyone else. At the very least, Jaune's didn't involve horrific crimes against the people of Remnant…
Mind racking for some kind of excuse, she was too slow to notice the hand on her shoulder. Only when she felt a gentle squeeze did she finally gaze into his sea-blue eyes.
"Tell her," he whispered.
Yellow eyes blinked slowly. "What? But Jaune, that's—"
"Ehh, it's okay. I don't think it would be that bad. I mean, it's Miss Goodwitch."
"But… you said that you wanted to keep it secret."
"I do, really. But again, it's Miss Goodwitch. You know she isn't a person of gossip, so she wouldn't mention this to anyone if we ask her to keep it quiet," he replied. "And hey, it's not like there's anything else we could say."
"I… Are you really okay with it?"
"It's not a big loss," he shrugged. "Really, I'm fine with it. Go ahead and tell her."
Trying to search for any hint of reluctance in his eyes and finding none, she slowly nodded at him before meeting the older blonde's green eyes. She gulped but steeled herself. "Miss Goodwitch, I can explain."
"By all means."
So it was that she recollected her first meeting with Jaune and the days ever since, of which the two of them had quickly bonded over their enjoyment of horror stories. From the very first story of experimentation, to a series of a girl dealing with mental problems, and finally a videogame of exploring a haunted house.
It sounded kind of crazy to recognise the fact those had only happened in the span of three continuous days; and that she and Jaune had hung out together all that time in the absence of the others. Neat. Maybe her social skills weren't half-bad as they'd been in the start.
By the end, Miss Goodwitch looked rather surprised. "Really? You don't strike me as someone who enjoys horror. If anything, don't you read a lot of action comics?"
"Ahaha… S-Sort of," he sounded embarrassed at having that known by even their teacher, of all people. Blake stamped down on a giggle. "But I've loved horror way longer than that. Practically grew up with that sort of thing."
"So you run a blog where you just talk about those kinds of things?"
"Yep. I cover them on my blog, and let people just go through my reviews, or find out the thing and try it out for themselves," he chuckled. "Honestly, I'm glad that it's a hobby that I've stuck with for a long time now. My parents told me I had a bad tendency to jump from hobby to hobby when I was younger. Slowly, I'm trying to get rid of that bad habit. If I'm going to get involved in something, I'd want to be do it properly, and this seems to be it."
"That is good. Leaving aside the obviousness of time wasted and such, having something to focus on can be a good way to manage stress. And in this career of ours, it can get difficult in having to deal with Grimm and the sort."
"Um, about that… Is that okay, I mean?" He suddenly seemed nervous, fiddling with his hands. "Like… is it alright if I work on this? I know it's not related to my studies at all, but I…"
"I don't see why not," her simple response both surprised Jaune and relieved Blake. "So long as it doesn't get in the way of your studies and training, I see no reason why you should not be allowed to pursue your hobbies—or, the way I see it, your passion. Obstructing a student's desire to explore such fields can often dampen their creativity and motivation, so we're more than willing to allow you to do whatever you'd like with your free time. You simply need to be smart in managing your time. Do so, and you'll be fine."
Dang. She'd always known that Miss Goodwitch was a really dutiful teacher to all of them, but this really put things in perspective. Strict as she may be, that didn't make her bad by any means. And she was even supportive of these sorts of things.
"T-Thank you, ma'am," her friend said, surprise and joy laced in his voice. "I promise I won't let it get in the way of my studies and training."
"Well, considering the word I've gotten from Bart, and the fact that you've been seeking training with your friends' help, I have a feeling that you would do fine."
"Right! Of course!"
"So, is that it?" Blake opted to ask, a little hopeful.
"Is that it? Of course not," she sighed, steepling her fingers together. "While I finally understand what had transpired, that does not excuse the little commotion you caused earlier today in the library."
Ah, shoot. With all the discussion, she'd completely forgotten about that. Blake wilted a little under the teacher's scrutinous gaze. "W-We're sorry, Miss Goodwitch. I promise you, it won't happen again."
"Perhaps, though I must still take action for your little display back there. As such, you will be serving detention with me tomorrow after all of your classes," both teens flinched, though it wasn't the worst punishment ever. It could have been much worse. What Yang and Nora went through… brr. She didn't want to imagine. "Outside of that, I'll advise you not to cause any further commotion the next time you peruse the library. Many students go there to study, and any form of disturbance would not go appreciated, so it is part of your responsibility to respect that. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good," she nodded. "Now then, if that's all there is to it, the both of you may leave. Have a good day."
"S-Sure," Jaune nodded, Blake following suit. "Thank you, ma'am."
The moment they were out of the room, the two practically went slag as they stood, making it down the corridor and down a floor before they felt comfortable to talk again.
"Well, that was stressful."
"No kidding. I'd gotten in trouble before, and it's still as scary now as it was back then."
The two shared a sigh, momentarily bonding over such a harrowing experience. Ah well, all they got would be a day of detention with her. It could have been much worse.
Blake hummed, feeling much lighter with the meeting long behind them. All that she was looking forward to now was actually getting a good night's sleep, though if she ended up seeing those goddamned faces in her dreams, she was going to strangle them to death… which probably wouldn't work since they're all ghosts and are already dead, but whatever!
"I loved that," she suddenly said, drawing her friend's attention. "The game we played, I mean. It was a new experience, and it was fun as heck."
"You did?" At her nod, he immediately beamed at her. "That's great! It's one of the best horror games I've ever played in my life, and it's honestly leagues above most of the modern horror games that you can find nowadays. I'm honestly glad that it's preserved and available to play, even now."
"Why? Should it technically be unavailable to play?"
"Yep. The medium supporting those games has technically been put down, but people online worked together to keep them running so that people in the far future can still try them out."
"Huh. That's nice… Yeah, that's good. That game was great, despite how simple it was. Literally just a bunch of moving pictures, right? But still, I'd honestly never been more terrified than I was today."
"Yeah right. You must have been scared of the dark when you were a little kid."
"Never was. Being a faunus made it easy for me to see in the dark," though she started off smug, her expression took on a nervous tinge afterwards. She could feel her faunus ears folding beneath her bow. "Which is why I absolute hated that game. And HiImMaryMary's videos. Couldn't see a damn thing."
"Yeah, I guess I can see your point. You literally looked like you were going to smash your scroll on the ground."
"Jerk," she said with no actual heat, punching him in the shoulder. It was a light tap, but he still whined in pain. She snorted. "But really, I'm glad that you were willing to share them with me. I really enjoyed all of them."
"Heh. Thanks, Blake," she could sense joy radiating off his person, if the wide smile was not indication enough. There was even a trace of redness in his face. "And look at you, you've survived all three of them. You're practically good to go."
"Spare me. I wouldn't have been brave enough to play it if you weren't there. Having you there makes it less scary."
"That so, eh?"
"Yeah… Plus, it's just more fun. We can actively talk about it together," she hummed at a thought. "In fact, why don't we just keep doing these horror sessions together some more? I kind of like 'em."
Surprise bled into his expression, his head snapping her way. "Eh? You want to keep doing this?"
"Why not?" She shrugged back. "I mean, we're pretty comfortable with one another at this point, so it wouldn't be bad if we kept it up, right? Plus, I do still want to watch more stuff together, so I'm totally down. You seem to know what's the best, after all, so of course I'd be asking you for your opinion."
"That's… You know what? Yeah! I'm totally down for that!" He nodded, smiling. "Seriously, I'd love to do that. And, um thanks for hanging out with me again. It's been so much fun.
Ack..! The sincerity in his voice! It was just so sweet! "Y-Yeah. No, it's… I had fun too," and deep down, she was relieved that she felt exactly that. None of this had been forced, although the fact that she ended up discovering nightmare fuel was… well, both a blessing and a curse. "See you tomorrow, Jaune."
"You too. Have a good sleep!"
Turning his back towards her, happily walking into his room and greeted with exuberant cheer from Nora and politeness from Pyrrha and Ren, he missed Blake's sweat-drop. Sleep. Right. Hah, funny thing, that one is.
She looked down the corridor. Brightly-lit, perfectly perceptible, absolutely no shadows to hide the silhouettes of deformed ghosts.
'I'm not going to get a decent sleep tonight, am I?'
Contrary to what she assumed, Blake slept like a baby last night. Cognitive irony dictated that the harder one tries to ignore something, the more they will actually think about it. And Blake had been trying very hard to ignore the game she played, going to bed with the expectation that she might as well get ready to encounter the ghost family. Luckily, that didn't happen.
That was the only reason she was able to wake up nicely, have her shower in peace, get her stuff ready without any trouble and join the rest of her friends for breakfast with relative ease. Team RWBY and JNPR ate together and chatted comfortably with one another, just as always.
So relaxed was she that she almost forgot to tell the team about their detention today, though Jaune was there to break the news to everyone after Ruby invited everyone on an outing after classes.
"Ehh? You have detention?" Ruby whined. "Aww… I thought we could go out together… We hadn't done any team outings in a long while!"
"Sorry, Ruby," she winced. When it came to her team leader, she always managed to feel guilty whenever she did something to make her unhappy. "It was an accident on my part, but I'll have to go. And Jaune too because he was in the vicinity."
"About that. What did y'all do?"
"I… may have accidentally made some noise in the library, and Miss Goodwitch was nearby."
Thankfully, none of them asked why in particular. She did not need to tell them about her apparently freaking out from playing a scary game.
"Well, then you'd have to go. No other choice to it," she nodded at Ren's words. "Avoid it, and you'd have the deputy headmistress on the warpath to you. I'm pretty sure no one wants that."
"Got that right. But man, that's kind of weird. Means that we're not the only who's gotten detention anymore," Yang and Nora exchanged high-fives at that, and Blake rolled her eyes at that. "Well, want me to keep you company? I could—"
"No," was everyone's immediate response. No one trusted her suggestion to be anything safe or responsible.
"I'll be fine. It's only detention," somehow, that was the wrong thing to say because Nora and Yang visibly cringed at her words. The faunus just rolled her eyes. Being silly as always. "It's only for a day," then, with a nod to Ruby, she said: "I'll make it up to you tomorrow."
"Weeell… Alright," she nodded back, beaming once more. "If you need any help, just say the word! Team RWBY sticks with its team no matter what!" She chuckled back at the younger girl's enthusiasm.
"And Team JNPR with our fearless leader!" Proclaimed Nora as she swung an arm around her supposedly 'fearless' leader's neck. The poor boy grinned sheepishly.
"Thanks, Nora. But really, it'll be fine."
Really, it was just sitting in a room and doing nothing but keeping quiet. What could possibly happen during then?
Detention, as she expected—both from Yang's constant complaints about it and all the movies that ever showcased such moments—was doing practically nothing. If anything, it gave her temporary reprieve from the chaos that is her team, as much as she loved them (and she'd rather carry that to the grave than ever admit it).
Only thing was, rather than be forced to sit far apart from one another, Jaune and her were allowed to sit side-by-side. Miss Goodwitch hadn't told them whether they weren't allowed to or not. She'd simply taken one look at them when they came in, nodded for them to take their seats, and continued working away at some papers with a pen, not having given them further instructions ever since.
'Well… this really is uneventful.'
She looked around. A single classroom is rather spacious, what with a single class being comprised of easily more than fifty students, so for an entire room to be used for just three people? Well, the silence was incredibly palpable. She could literally hear the pen from their teacher scribbling away at paper. The silence would have driven some people mad.
Thankfully, however, she much liked the quiet. And unlike Yang, she knew how to make full use of the time to get things done, so she'd ended up deciding to do her homework instead. Might as well be productive.
Taking out her writing utensils, she prepared to write into her book. Beside her, Jaune had just got out his book as well, and he—
Wait a minute. What?
Amber eyes blinked at the book in his hands, trying to discern whether the book he was holding was actually real or not. Eventually, however, when she could indeed confirm that it existed in this material plane of theirs, she had to then come to terms with the fact that she wasn't crazy.
Jaune was reading a book about gore.
'What the fuck.'
The cover page was red. And by red, she meant the entire thing is red. Then there's a blood splatter in the background, a brighter crimson, with the words 'Approach to Gore: Not For the Weak-Hearted' right in front with some kind of spiky font. And for 'special effects', a decapitated human head was used to replace the 'o' in 'Gore'.
And Jaune was flipping through it like he was reading the newspaper!
Call it a reflex or whatever, but she ended up smacking him by the elbow, getting him to yelp quietly. His eyes turned to her, surprised.
"Why are you reading that..?!" She half-whispered, half-yelled. "Don't tell me it's for research…"
"Sort of, but to better understand why people enjoy this sort of thing."
"What..? Why..?"
"I mean… Look at it," no thanks, she really didn't want to. "It's gross, it's bloody, it's a dead person… I'd always been curious why so many people enjoy it, so I'm just giving it a read-through."
"…And what about you? Do you like it?"
"Not really," his casual answer had her face-palming. He really did sound like he was discussing the weather. How was her day, by the way? Just great. She was listening to her friend talk about gore. "Compared to psychological horror, this one is far more physical. Rather than scary, I think it evokes disgust more. I mean, I guess it would be useful for studying human biology… but to scare? I don't think it really hits the mark."
"Urgh… Doesn't it gross you out?"
"A little," he admitted. "But I'm okay. I've read worse."
"You…" She tried to search for words, but eventually settled for: "Of course you have…"
"Not on purpose. There was this comic that was popular for how graphic the deaths in there are, so I'd wanted to take a look. And man, was it nauseous," urgh. She really didn't want to know, and she'll definitely never take a look at it ever. "Even so, I guess it can count as horror."
"Wait, it does?"
"Yeah. Based on most dictionaries, the definition for horror is; an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. Since gore falls under the category of disgust, it would technically count as horror."
Really? Huh. She never knew. She had always assumed horror applied only for things that scare a person, not disgust them. She still can't relate those two ideas.
"Think about it for a moment. Horror is broad, but there's subdivisions to it; paranormal horror, non-supernatural horror, body horror, splatterpunk, psychological horror, erotic horror… There's pretty much all kinds of things, and you'll notice that I mentioned two terms involved with gore."
"I suppose… But I think it's kind of strange how something that disgusts would also count as horror. It's like looking at the contents of a garbage can and expecting to freak out. How does that work?"
"Well, there was a longer explanation in this book I read. It was literally going in-depth regarding the stuff and talking about its philosophy. It was pretty neat. Left it back home, though…"
"…I really shouldn't be surprised that you'd end up reading a book like that just to understand how to write horror better… What did it say?"
Jaune set down the book gently, scratching his cheek. "Well, it said that horror was all about uneasiness. It's split into five portions; the anticipation of terror, fear and exhilaration as you're going through something, the opportunity to confront something that's unpredictable or dangerous, the promise of relative safety—like in a movie cinema, or reading a book—and finally, the feeling of relief once it's all over."
"Wow… That's a long explanation."
"Yeah. So basically, it all boils down to before, during and after the moment. We get the anticipation and jittery nerves, then the actual fear of having to go through it, and finally the unbelievable relief once we finally get through it. It applies for movies; you get nervous about what's going to happen on-screen, and as everything is going on, your heart's beating loudly and you feel faint. But, no matter what, it'll still have an ending, and everyone can leave feeling… well, maybe satisfied or disappointed, but definitely happy that it was over."
Sheesh. Talk about long-winded, but true. Nobody likes going through something bad, even if it wasn't necessarily directed at them. Being able to get through that and just have calm right after was just really nice.
In some way, she could relate it to their experience of being huntsmen. It was always nerve-racking to know that they would have to face Grimm in combat, and the fear hits a peak in the moment. But after the battle, everyone's fine and dandy and well on their way home.
…Then again, for a school of huntsmen, practically none of them are afraid of fighting Grimm. They literally skip the first two stages.
"It's the same way HiImMaryMary's videos were designed," the mention of the series has her perking up, significantly interested. "Every video started off on a really calm note, so that puts us at ease… somewhat. But we're guarded, expecting a jumpscare. Something to pop out at us. And during the last one minute of the video, that's when the fear kicks in."
"That was true," she nodded, not entirely too pleased with that experience, but having found it fun nevertheless.
"And when the video cuts off, that's as good as an end, so we're left with 'Man, I'm so glad that that's over with. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise if it kept going'," yeah, she definitely got that feeling at the end.
"And the same could be applied to gore?"
"In a sense. Once the splatter moment is over with, you can let yourself be relaxed. But witnessing everything can be a real pain," truer words had never been spoken before.
"Has there ever been anything like that?" Her question elicited a hum. "Like… You supposedly reach a resolution at the end, but then things get worse again?"
"Ah… There was one movie that I recall, and that one had plenty of horror clichés going around like jumpscares and the like, but I like to think that they were done really well," he did not need to laugh. That just made it worse. "I watched it a long time, so I don't really remember the name or whatever happened that well. The ending sequence, though, was crazy. So basically, this woman was confronting her demons in her old house. She managed to burn the demon; a representation that she'd overcome her fears, metaphorically and literally. She then drove off to go see a friend at his house, and when she asked to stay over at his place, the guy reveals himself to be the demon—she never killed it or anything. Everything starting from the fire had been a hallucination solely to drive the hope into her, only to then extinguish it."
Oh, for god's sake, that is the fucking worst. Blake does not need to imagine how that could have possibly gotten worse.
"She then runs out of his house, but then it turned out that she'd only ran out of her house, which meant she never really got anywhere since she'd been hallucinating," in his rambling, he missed her shudder. "She sees her friend driving towards her, so she runs inside the house. But then, the demon confronts her and forces itself into her body—"
"Ewww! Stop, stop..!"
"Oh, no, it's not gorey at all!" He waves his hands about. "The practical effects looked really cool, though. It looks like something more… how do I put it? Less CGI and more like they put together clay and everything. I don't know how to explain it."
That doesn't really make it that much better, but at least there's no need to be worried about some horrible disfiguration. "And then..?"
"So, the demon goes inside her, and she gets possessed. Her friend goes in to save her, but then she doused herself in oil before burning herself, all while smiling to herself. He watched her die, and that passed the curse to him."
Lovely. A movie that would surely be a hit with families looking to bond with their children and their neighbours. She would definitely be watching it.
Not.
"We should totally watch it together."
"Never," she hissed back. "Not in a million years."
"B-But you literally played The House 2."
"Jaune, be honest with me. Which one was scarier?"
"As much as I'd want the old school game to win, I'd say that the movie did much better," confirmed: not gonna' watch it. "I think it worked really well because it played on the psychological aspect. Sometimes, the jumpscares are expected, but they still get you. The ending, especially, was freaking trippy," he hummed, leaning back. "I would have expected her to somehow trump her curse and beat it. A message of beating one's depression, I guess, but I guess not."
"Yeah… Psychological horror is just the worst."
"Exactly. I find that much more satisfying because it toys with our psyche and our expectations," he said with a smile. "To me, I like that more than body horror, although people would be screaming and closing their eyes not to catch people getting sawed alive or something. That in itself is a form of horror too."
A physical terror on that aspect, though nothing she wanted to see. As Jaune said, what was left to the imagination worked to be much more terrifying than what was shown on screen, though it seemed that this movie managed to make do with both aspects.
Actually… horror. What could people possibly enjoy out of it? It's always aimed to terrify its audience and leave them feeling uneasy, and everyone should technically hate feeling that way.
Heck, everyone knew that negative emotions were prone to draw Grimm to themselves. And yes, she understood that just one person feeling something bad in a city so far away from any Grimm shouldn't possibly attract any, but she'd have thought that they would choose to avoid anything that made them feel negativity, if only based on the principle. So why would they seek out stuff like this?
When asked, Jaune pondered over the question for a little while before formulating a response. "I think… well, there are three reasons I can think of why I, and some people, would like this sort of thing."
Three? Dang. She'd have thought he'd give just one answer, but that was okay too. "And?"
"Well… first off, it's because we get excited by it. Or, you know, scared out of our minds, but reading or watching scary stuff stimulate us—both our bodies and minds, putting us in a fight-or-flight mode. Some people like the rush of adrenaline, while those who hate it still watch it because they want to feel it even a little—"
"—In fact, from most article I read, our body sets off all kinds of chemicals whenever we watch movies. Fright causes our body to produce adrenaline, which gives us heightened sensation and a lot of energy. And from what I do know, we get the most pleasure at the point in the movie that's most terrifying."
Interesting… There was some truth to his words, though because she didn't consume horror all that much, only beginning to get into it recently, she wasn't sure she understood all that way.
Still, recalling the game she played, she had indeed been most terrified when the ghosts got close up to the screen and started making all those horrific sounds. Her entire body had been aflame, and she knew that had to have been the panic and adrenaline doing that to her.
"Secondly, it comes down to experience. Like, why would people go to haunted house attractions if they know they're afraid of it? Well, it's for the experience. They just want to give it a try and see what that's like," and then, his smile turns a little cheeky. "Plus bragging rights, and calling whoever got scared a chicken."
"Snrk. Mean."
"Tell that to the loser," the two of them shared a chuckle before he continued. "And the last is probably because we're curious. We're wondering, 'Hey? What if that thing could happen to someone?', so we watch another person go through those experiences to understand the possibility."
"Gee. It's as if you're asking to go through that experience…"
"Well, no, not necessarily. It's the exact same reason why teenagers love fantasy stories so much; a different world, different rules, cool abilities and the like. They get to live out that existence in their head, and it's the same here. Except, you know, scarier."
"Yeah, I get what you mean…" It was exactly the same with her and her books… Blake coughed into her fist, trying very hard not to blush. "So… is that why people like gore too?"
"Maybe… I don't know. I appreciate gore just like I appreciate everything else, but unlike the other formats of horror, I can't fully grasp the awesomeness of gore. I mean, it's just people being torn apart like paper in a shredding machine. Seeing all the stuff that should be inside of us going all over the place?"
"True that…"
"And besides, gore on its own is just disgusting. The way I see it, if you want to turn it into actual scares, you need to combine it with a psychological aspect. Just like The Vacuan Sleep Experiment, which did indeed have depictions of body horror, but also the uneasiness behind the effects on the subjects' psyches. The shift in their attitudes and behaviours are far more terrifying to think of, right?"
She'd literally imagined herself in that setting. Imagined what it was like to face them, with all the descriptions in the story. She fought back a sick feeling. "That really is…"
"And I have a couple of other stories like that. Want to give them a try next time?"
Did she want to? Hell no. But… "M-Maybe next time."
"Haha, yeah. Sure. But Blake?"
"Yeah?"
"I really think we should at least try, for once, watch a horror movie together. You'll totally understand better how it works. Plus, it'll be fun!"
"Damn it, Jaune… You're the one who wants to watch it, aren't you?"
"Guilty as charged," he said back with a sheepish grin. "But it's just… watching a scary movie through your scroll just wouldn't compare to watching it through the big screens. It basically applies for everything. The proper medium for something in the right moment can always make the experience three times better. For example, horror movies are super effective in cinemas, whereas games are entirely terrifying if you put on earphones and play it on your own. Have you watched one before?"
"No…"
"Then you've got to give it a try! Just once," he said, putting his hands together. "Just once, and that's enough for me. Please?"
God damn it, why does Jaune have to be one of the nicest people she knows? If only he was a dick, it'd make it easier to reject him. But nooo, he has to be super kind and polite and looking up at her with those wide, hopeful eyes!
Try as she might, Blake was not immune to his pleas, faltering with each second before eventually caving in the end. "Fiiine…"
"Really?" Did he have to look so happy?! "Thanks, Blake! It'll be fun, I promise you!"
"Yeah, yeah…" She would have believed him if it weren't for the fact that she felt like she'd just signed away her soul. "You can pick the movie. I don't watch enough to know any, and most movies nowadays are just action flicks. You'd know better."
"Got'cha. When do you wanna' watch it?"
"Not sure… We'll be having a joint team outing, after all. And who knows what else. What movies are out, when they're out…"
"True that. And there's our training. We've got plenty on our plates."
"Still can't believe you'd ask Nora to train you."
"What can I say? I need to work on my body, and she knows her stuff," and leaves him half-dead at the end of the day. Effective as she may be as a teacher, she's still scary. "Either way, we can both check with our teams and try and find time for when we're free. It might be the weekends, but there's no guarantee that we'll be busy by then," he shrugged. "Guess we'll have to see."
"Fair enough."
With their conversation done, they returned to their separate work, Blake particularly rolling her eyes at the fact that she'd ended up not getting any work done despite bring her homework to detention with her. Ah well. Not like it'll be done later.
…Huh. They'd been talking this entire time and Miss Goodwitch hadn't scolded them even once? She looked over to the woman. Her papers were all stacked beside her, indicating that they'd been done.
And she was now sleeping, face in her arms on her desk, uncaring that they were still there.
"…Maybe she didn't have her morning coffee."
"Well, who's going to wake her? Not me."
"Not—Aww, man… Fine, I'll do it."
Author's Notes:
In the old story, Jaune hated slasher films. But just because I think it'd be funnier if he's the kind of cuckoo that would enjoy all forms of horror, I might as well make it so that he enjoyed them too.
Me? Personally, I'm not a fan. Watched Evil Dead Rise this year, and I wasn't too fond of that one, on account of how violent those deaths had been. Like, damn, she bit into that guy's eye. Gross.
And Pumpkin Night with its gore? Urp. Yeah, I remember my friend talking about it a long time ago, and I tried giving it a read. I couldn't handle just how detailed the deaths were. Ironic, considering that I'm studying to be a doctor, lmao.
Oh yeah, two things: I said in the notice of the old story that I'd delete it by today, but I'll be a bit busy. So I might leave it for a week before I properly take it down.
Also, as commented by… ahem, I copy-pasted this. Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwe; all the stories depicted in this one should have Remnant-based inspirations to make them more realistic. After all, in the prologue, I literally did that already with The Charge of the Light Brigade, and I found it odd I never did that with all the other stories. As such, I'll be making revisions to the previous chapters at a later time. So in the chapter, I'll alter the name, but I'll make reference to the original name of the medium in the author's notes.
And some other comments made requests. For sure! I'm down for getting some more horror games, movies and stories to cover in this one, though I won't make any promises that they may show up. I'm even going to comb through all the comments on the older story to keep track of all suggestions and requests, so yeah.
And to ChrisRoad, no promises on romance. I was thinking of this one being a purely platonic story, but we'll see how it goes.
