afterism | Trick or Treat! 2020

Hi!

This is my most favourite time of year, so I'm already so excited for whatever you're going to create. All these words are just here for inspiration and I don't have my heart set on anything, so if you want to create something that I haven't prompted here, please do!

General

Fic likes: fics of all ratings, magic and magical realism, fantasy & urban fantasy, myths and legends and fairytales, moral ambiguity, intelligent protagonists, epistolary, shameless tropes, distinctive/atmospheric settings, character studies through action, first times and getting together rather than established relationship, competency, swordfights, rain and storms and weather, fancy clothes, crack treated seriously, angst, hurt/comfort, complicated relationships.

Porn likes: Vanilla sex and smut that focuses entirely on what the characters are thinking and feeling is always lovely. If you want to write kinks, my favourites include honour bondage, d/s elements that aren't painstakingly negotiated and both characters are conveniently into, sharing fantasies, sex pollen, desperation leading to frottage & sex with clothes on.

Trick & Treat

Treat likes: Adventures and mysteries and investigations. Roadtrips. Characters taking care of each other in their own way. Competency, and skills being appreciated. Pets. Humour and banter. Domesticity and quiet, peaceful slices of life. Body worship. Silly party games that end in kissing or feelings. Characters doing what they enjoy. Everything autumnal. Everything to do with Halloween.

Trick likes: Atmospheric horror. Psychological horror. Comedy horror! Finding the light in dark places. Spooky houses. Abandoned places. Creepy trees. Dark spaces full of unknown things. That slow, creeping sense that something is Wrong. Nature moving benignly and deliberately. Plants growing too fast and where they shouldn't. Apocalypse and post-apocalypse. Dystopia. Science/magic gone wrong. Ghosts. Zombies. Eldritch abominations. Lovingly described gore. Characters being injured enough to make things difficult but not enough to stop them surviving. Being stalked by something that may or may not be human. Humans being the real monsters. Monsters being the real monsters. Guilt. Mind-control, manipulation, hallucinations. Time loops revolving around something awful.

DNWs

I don't have many, and almost all have caveats!

- Main character death (exceptions: In Blank Space, any men can die. For Stardew Valley, I'd prefer it if any named villagers didn't die, but if it's an unavoidable part of the plot then please have it off-screen. For 'For sale baby shoes never worn', feel free to kill anyone and anything except a human baby.)
- Animal cruelty or death. Monsters that are technically animals can be killed! But please be nice to pets and wild animals and things that aren't actively trying to kill anyone.
- Pregnancy, but I waive it for the 'For sale baby shoes never worn' request.
- A/B/O.

I've requested trick fic for all of these (plus treat fic for Stardew), but art treats and non-trick treats are very welcome!

I also opt-in to the Battle of the Bands community challenge! Please introduce me to your favourite and/or spookiest music.

Fandoms

Blank Space - Taylor Swift (Music Video) - Trick, Fic
Taylor

Lean hard into the horror aspects of this video and I will LOVE IT. Is Taylor some kind of black widow/goddess/monster who lures men to her house to toy with and sometimes devour? What does she get out of it? Are the men mind-controlled or do they somehow think they're the one in control? Is there a forest around her mansion filled with crashed cars and well-dressed ghosts? What happens when a women (in a really nice suit??) turns up instead of the man Taylor's expecting? (if she's there to slay the beast, please let them fall in mutually murderous love and both survive.) I love the humourous vibe of the video but full-out horror is also great!

If you're naming any of the men, I'd prefer it if they weren't named after Taylor's actual ex's.

I originally requested this for Multifandom Horror Exchange where Taylor/OFC was a tag, and I'm still super intriguied by that! If you are too then I'm open to the OFC being whatever you want, but if you need inspiration I do low-key ship Taylor with Selena Gomez and every other woman who shows up in the Bad Blood video. :D.

More possible things to explore!
- What's up with all the animals everywhere? Is she a modern-day Snow White? Do the men think she's a trapped princess in need of rescuing? (Maybe there are two stories about the manor in the middle of the woods - the beautiful girl and the evil witch guarding her. Taylor loves playing both!)
- The line I get drunk on jealousy. Does she feed on emotions? How do other feelings affect her?
- Why do the clothes burst into flame when Taylor throws them off the balcony?
- The apple voodoo?? (is she Eve, or Lilith?)

You don't have to answer any of these question! You can just explore the aesthetics or what happens with previous/future men and I will be delighted.

For sale baby shoes never worn - Trick, Fic

Tell me the horror story that involves these six words!

DNW: Death of a human child. Any other reason for the shoes never being worn is fine! But I would prefer something supernatural and wild rather than anything resembling realistic human tragedy.

It can be cracky or horrific or anywhere in between. Go with wherever your mind takes you! But here's some inspiration, if you need it:
- Is this modern-day story? A fairy tale? Is the advert the end of the story, or the beginning?
- What happens when someone buys the shoes? What if they're doll shoes, and the tread is worn? (I adore epistolary fic, so if you want to tell a story entirely in bad reviews and messages to the seller...)
- Giant feet? Magical shoes? Shoes that were supposed to fit perfectly but for some reason this is the wrong baby?
- The pregnancy had felt wrong from the very beginning. (Lean in to the body horror! Is it demons? Aliens? Tentacles? Something ancient and unknowable, but the expectant parents are clinging to sanity by pretending everything's normal?)
- this xkcd comic

Stardew Valley (Video Game) - Trick or Treat, Fic
Shane

Shane is my favourite, and I want him to have either the best or the worst day of his life :D

Treat - All the lovely staples of autumn! Picking apples and blackberries and pumpkins, going for walks through golden forests, sitting by a roaring fire on a cold night, appreciating how pretty and magical his town can actually be now that he's sober enough to see it. Or, some light thrills on Spirit's Eve? Trick or treating with Jas? The beginnings of a new relationship with one of the other bachelors?

Trick - There's plenty of horrible things in the mines and the sewers, but what if something terrible walked into town? I'd love to see him (and the rest of the non-combatant villagers, if you want!) face up to something unexpected, like a lovecraftian horror or zombies or a serial killer in Pelican Town.

I prefer m/m (and f/f) ships, so if you want to ship Shane with anyone then please let it be a guy! Elliot is my second favourite if you want the challenge of making Shane/Elliot happen, but I'm open to seeing Shane with any of the other bachelors :D

For tricks, I don't want any of the named villagers to die, so - feel free to make the town a bit bigger, or have a convenient influx of tourists, or make it about how weird it is that the farm on the edge of town keeps having its new farmers disappear (but wow, the forest sure is flourishing)?

That said, if the death of a known villager an unavoidable part of the plot then please have it off-screen (and please, please don't kill Linus, I'm very protective of him).

I'm so excited for fic in any of these fandoms, and I hope this has been somehow helpful, and I can't wait to read what you write ♥