Dear Trick or Treat Author 23
Sep. 14th, 2023 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Trick-or-treat! I can’t wait to see what you have to give!
General likes: Fairy tales, gothic literature, film noir, revenge tragedies, bodice rippers, melodrama, dark comedy, heroine/villain/hero love triangles, heroine/villain dynamics, rescue romance, mythology, maledom (non and dubcon are fine), bdsm, bondage, character studies, what-if AUs, genre swapping AUs, vampires, folklore, knight and lady dynamics, epistolary fic, interactive fiction.
General DNWs: Gruesome mutilations described in detail, comeplay, ABO, scat or watersports, pushing away female characters, fetish universes, character bashing, fully mundane AUs for fantastical settings, unrequested identity headcanons, harm to cute animals
Climax
Selva
Psyche
I love that Selva, the closest thing to our protagonist and our Final Girl, survives not because she’s the only morally pure character but because the actress and director decided together that this is how it would go for her, and that she quite literally makes love not war. I’m fascinated by questions around Psyche- was she a sadist who wanted to hurt everyone around her, a naive hippie who thought she was helping everyone expand their consciousnesses, or a callous manipulator who simply wanted to see what would happen?
For fic, this movie reminded me a lot of The Bacchae, so tying it in with mythology (is Psyche connected to the bride of Eros, or a maenad?) or with history (what if this was a bal des victimes or a 1920s German cabaret?) would be fun. For a contemporary setting, are Psyche or Selva witches? Could such a violent and emotional event leave behind an eternal dance party of ghosts? For art, I would love absolutely anything, but something playing into the psychedelic experience would be great.
19th Century Literary RPF
Mary Shelley/Lord Byron/Percy Shelley
Hey, it could have happened! For fic, the more over the top darkly romantic, the better. If you want to get erotic and/or kinky, these three seem like a good choice for that, in any position or situation of power. For art, gothic is great, whether that means Edward Gorey or lush and colorful to you. Let's get swooning!
The Invitation (2022)
Evie Jackson
Walter de Ville
Lucy Billington
Evie Jackson/Walter de Ville
Nobody ever needs to make a sexy Dracula movie ever again, this is the definitive one! For art, channel the most indulgent tween vampire lover inside you! For fic, some possible prompts:
An AU based on the vampire media of your choice! How would this be different if they were Anne Rice vampires? Or Vampire the Masquerade vampires? Or What We Do in the Shadows vampires?
I did get a little annoyed at the throwaway use of the names Jonathan and Mina Harker, so I'd be all for you using the real Harkers in a crossover with the original Dracula novel! This could be still in the modern day, or an AU where it all goes down during the 1890s. Evie would be the absolute heart of that friend group/polycule! (Just don't make the Dracula heroes racist towards her, please!) Might Lucy have originally been Lucy Westenra?
If you're interested in dubcon or consensual-but-a-bad-idea smut with Walter/Evie or Walter/Evie/Lucy, I would be all for that.
Is there any way Lucy could have survived?
BraveStarr
Bravestarr
Thirty-Thirty
Tex Hex
Judge J.B.
Bravestarr & Thirty-Thirty
Bravestarr/Judge J.B.
I fell into watching this show and was blown away by how creative and smart it was (and holy cow, the things they did in the movie with a higher budget!) I love all these characters, and I would be happy to just see some canon-typical interactions, but you could also do something like finish up the plots (does Tex Hex ever get fully redeemed, or Stampede defeated once and for all?) And if you want to flesh out the characters (what tribe is our hero actually from?) I’d love that! Art can go for the style of the cartoon, or I would love to see something that looks like the cover of an old pulp western or science fiction novel.
I’m also down for AUs that play around with the western genre. What if BraveStarr was a spaghetti western? What if it was a No Country for Old Men-style modern western? What if it was a Ravenous-style horror western? What if our heroes came in conflict with Firefly-style space western outlaws? In all these cases I’d prefer for Bravestarr, JB and Thirty-Thirty not to die, but it can get dark and spooky (or not) as you like!
DCU
Becky Albright
Jonathan Crane
Ship: Becky Albright/Jonathan Crane
I loved Scarecrow and the one-off Mistress of Fear comic when I was a teen, and fell back into loving it all again this year! Either or both of these characters are naturals for a horror Trick story, but they could also have a funny or bittersweet Treat, being the huge dorks that they are. While my favorite Jonathan Crane backstory was in Scarecrow Year One, feel free to involve any other era he was in, even the animated series or the Nolanverse (who can forget Cillian Murphy’s eyes?) Becky is a cool character in her own right and I wish she’d stuck around. What's it like to be a lawyer in Gotham, where only the worst and wackiest things go on trial?
If you want to do shipfic, it could be dark and dubcon or surprisingly nice (what if he had actually met and wooed her under better circumstances?) She could accept his Mistress of Fear title, or it could progress some other way, even just via far away complicated pining. It could also be fun to have a Brian Azzarello’s Joker-style story from the POV of the henchman in Mistress of Fear who wanted to sell the fear gas to foreign dictators but got told to go scare some girl to make her admit Scarecrow was cool instead. And there’s always the option of Scarecrow just having fun around Gotham on Halloween, giving out real frights or surprising everyone by just giving out candy to kids.
For art, pick your favorite Batman media to emulate, whether that’s a comic era, game, show or movie. What would all this look like in a Burtonesque nightmare, or the janky 1940s serials featured on Rifftrax?
Spinning Silver
Miryem Mandelstam/The Staryk Lord
This ship fits so perfectly into either Trick or Treat, I knew I had to request it when I saw the tagset! You could do something creepy where you play up the Staryk Lord as a demon lover or the kind of fae who abducts beautiful women (though if it’s an AU, please keep Miryem Jewish.) For something softer, give us a glimpse of the marriage as they grow in fondness and get to know each other. What does it feel like to genuinely fall in love as or with an inhuman being?
For art, the style of ornate folk art on the book cover is always beautiful, but you could also focus on illustrating one of the scenes above. Either way, it would be very nice to see them together!
Misery - Stephen King
Misery Chastain
Ship: Geoffrey Alliburton/Ian Carmichael/Misery Chastain
Ship: Misery Chastain & Annie Wilkes
Ship: Misery Chastain & Paul Sheldon
I love the book-within-a-book part of Misery, both seeing as it goes increasingly gothic and seeing Paul reflect that he’d actually liked the characters and setting before he’d had to start churning out books on schedule. When I saw the actual romance characters nominated, I jumped for joy! You could give a glimpse into one of the books, either an earlier rollicking bodice ripper or a horror-tinged scene from Misery’s Return or hypothetical subsequent gothic sequels. (Just, uh, maybe not with the Darkest Africa plot.)
I’m also very intrigued by the idea of Paul or Annie interacting with Misery! Annie might have personified Misery as a real being who was her friend, or Paul might have started seeing or talking to her during captivity and figured “Well, I guess I finally snapped.” Is she just a hallucination, or could she really be trying to rescue Paul or soften Annie’s heart?
Art in the style of old school “clinch covers” of romance novels would be lovely, possibly more horrific (or openly poly).
Israel Rank
Israel Rank
Sibella Hallward
Israel Rank/Sibella Hallward
The Jewish Byronic antihero we never knew we wanted! Israel’s narrative voice is wonderful, and I can easily imagine a scene where he describes a murder (or the haunting created by a murder) written in the same style, or a tender romantic or family scene with the same wry narration. Sibella is a wacky character herself, unconcerned about the consequences of anything she or her lover might do, no matter how twisted the circumstances. (And is she related to Basil Hallward, by any chance? Might she enlist Israel to help solve his disappearance?)
For art, this calls to mind the eerie/goofy Edwardian aesthetic of Edward Gorey. I’m certainly not opposed to something cute, though!
Red Eye
Jackson Rippner/Lisa Reisert
This was THE movie for awful villain/heroine ships! Sexual tension turns dangerous, and danger turns into sexual tension. I was extremely happy and also creeped out when he said “I may have to steal you!” My DNW for this movie is dwelling on the fate of the politician and his family- even if this is a version where Jackson wins, I don’t need the details. Or maybe Lisa still saves them, but Jackson tries to keep her rather than kill her for it? Or could she make some kind of bargain where she offers herself to her infatuated foe in exchange for their or her father’s life? The story can end with either Jackson or Lisa winning, or ambiguously, I’m fine with whatever. I didn’t request Treats because I couldn’t see a way to make it work with the situation, but I’d be happy to see some surprisingly tender feelings. As for art, I’m always happy to get a good look at Cillian Murphy’s eyes…