2Title: Fright Night Spectacular
1 of 31
Prompt: Night of the Werewolf
Prompt Summary: With the combined efforts of Bacchus and Welch, some old horror flicks are rediscovered. Curious about ancient Earth pop culture, the crew of The Calnus decides to watch them to gain a better grasp of what used to scare Earthlings.
In which Lymle doesn't get it, Meracle just wants cookies, and Faize is . . . unfazed.
Guest appearances: Stephen D. Kenny, Lt. Heinz
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean 4 nor its characters. I do not profit financially from writing this story.
Warning: Slightly AU
"So let me get this straight," Faize said as he watched Edge and Bacchus set up a large monitor in the item creation lab, which also served as the crew conference room. And by conference, mainly the times when Reimi wanted to test a new recipe but no one wanted to be the first guinea pig to try something new. "This is so we can watch what you Earthlings call moo-vees, specifically scary movies?"
"That's right," Edge replied.
"And these movies are about shape-shifting Earthlings?"
"Not really shapeshifters," came the reply. "Werewolves."
"I see," Faize murmured. "And what are werewolves again?"
"Werewolves," a deeper, older voice intoned, "are humans who, on the night of a full moon, turn into a half-man, half-wolf creature."
Faize turned to see Stephen D. Kenny, commander of the SRF from Moonbase, entering the room, along with another human male with pale blond hair and blue eyes. From the crash behind him, Faize surmised Edge had stumbled in his excitement to come and greet the older man. The commander bore a huge smile on his face.
"And how does that not make them a shapeshifter?" Faize inquired.
"According to my Grandmother Schmidt, shapeshifters can take on any shape at any time," he replied. Kenny stopped a few feet away from Faize. "They have to know what the creature looks like first before they can assume that particular shape, but, other than that, there are no real requirements. Werewolves suffer from an infection, usually caused by another werewolf biting them."
"And how would your grandmother know such things, Commander Kenny?" Bacchus asked. "If you don't mind me inquiring, that is."
"Not at all," the commander replied. He then paused and tilted his head, his grin going from wide and playful, if Faize dared to say so, to thoughtful and somber. "Let me just say that my grandmother was an unusual woman. She loved to delve into mythology. Always told me that World War III was inevitable, with the way society was at the time."
A part of Faize saddened to hear such a thing coming from Commander Kenny. With the way Edge and Reimi had spoken, it had sounded more like no one cared about the environment when dropping the bombs that destroyed most of Earth's environment. To hear it coming from someone who had been around before the war, well, it piqued the other part of Faize, which was his curiosity. Next to him, Edge clenched his hands.
"She sounds like an interesting woman," Faize remarked. "I would very much like to meet her sometime."
"I would love for you to meet her, too," Kenny said. "Unfortunately, she passed away a few years before the war started. I, for one, am glad that she did. I think it would have broken her heart to know just how right she was."
Silence fell over them for a few moments. Then the commander brightened and glanced at Bacchus.
"So, out of my mother and grandmother's old movie collections, what did you manage to revive?" he asked. "It's been a while since I've seen some of the older movies."
"According to the inscriptions on the disks themselves," Bacchus began, "we have Van Helsing, Underworld, Teen Wolf, and The Curse of the Werewolf."
"The Curse of the Werewolf, huh?" Kenny laughed a little. "Sounds like one of my mother's movies. How soon before we can watch them?"
"When Miss Reimi finishes with the snacks, we can begin," Bacchus said.
"Sounds good. You don't mind if I . . .?" The commander gestured to one of the chairs. Instantly, Edge was shaking his head.
"No, no, not all," he answered a bit too quickly. "Please. Make yourself comfortable."
It took them a while longer to get started in watching the movies. Lymle insisted on watching them, to which Reimi had fits, but then Lymle had replied, "I've seen scarier stuff, 'kay? I won't get scared."
And apparently, Lymle had been right. Throughout the first movie, Teen Wolf, she complained constantly about how she was bored, that it truly wasn't that scary. Meracle kept trying to steal cookies from everyone (not that Edge seemed to stop her, in Faize's estimation - Reimi had, once again, gone overboard with the baking). Myuria ended up laughing alongside Commander Kenny and Lieutenant Heinz over how . . . cheesy the movie was (a concept that baffled Faize). Bacchus ran an analysis the entire time while Edge and Reimi . . . well, they were the only ones horrified but only because they didn't understand why anyone thought such a movie was entertaining. They'd said so. Repeatedly.
Faize stared at his little bowl of popcorn. While he truly didn't understand what was supposed to be so terrifying about the movie, there was one aspect he certainly appreciated.
"He learned to accept who he was, despite how extremely different he was compared to everyone else," he murmured. He glanced around at the varied group of people surrounding him and felt a little bit better about who he was in this strange little universe he'd become mixed up in.
Author's Notes: Okay, not quite so scary, at least not for Faize there. I can only imagine Edge's horror at something we deem as entertainment, something strictly for fun, and only because he grew up in a world where a lot was lost.
This is for my Halloween festival, 31 Days of Halloween. I hope you enjoyed!
