Multifandom Horror Exchange 2021

[lamiacalls]

Multifandom Horror

Hey! I had so much fun in this exchange last year and I’ve been waiting impatiently all year for it to swing back around. I love horror in all its many forms.

My letter is kind of long as a result of that love. Or, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! Please feel free to ignore anything not relevant (or ignore prompts completely)! Some of the prompts are much longer than others — mainly, this is an artefact of me copying over some prompts from last year, where I wrote really detailed prompts. This year, I’ve tried to be a bit briefer, but there remains a bit of a disparity. The length of any section, in general, is not indicative of any kind of preference, I love all these canons (and ships and characters!) with my whole heart.

For artists, I have a few specific art prompts in my likes section, but I’m hopeful my prompts in general will lead to some ideas. I loooove horror art — last year’s collection, I remember, was an absolute treat. So go wild.

Lastly, if you want to kill or grievously harm any of my requested characters, turn ships against each other, have them betray each other or do awful things to each other, etc. etc., please feel free to. (Equally, if you don’t want to do that, I’m very happy with that too!)

Horror Likes
Favourite Horror Canons
General Likes
Art Likes + Prompts
Smut Likes
DNWs
The Folk of the Air
DC Comics
Archer
Ready or Not
Sin Eater
Stardew Valley

Horror Likes

- Haunted houses
- Weird towns where things are Not Right/townsfolk turning on the protagonists/insular towns with uncomfortable and sometimes violent beliefs
- Body horror
- Came back wrong
- Body swaps, dopplegangers, reanimation/necromancy
- Brushing supernatural events off as folklore
- People struggling to retain their humanity when monstrous things happen to them
- Gothic settings and themes
- Ancient (but not Lovecraftian) evils that are out for blood
- Parasites
- The uncanny
- Spooky locked room mysteries
- Feelings or fears of being trapped, claustrophobia, isolation, hopelessness etc.
- Comic horror
- Larger than life evils that seem insurmountable (and perhaps are)
- Demon (or similar) possessions
- Necromancy used for good or evil, seances, occult
- Inappropriate times to start to an argument, i.e. when the slasher is right behind you or you’re two seconds away from killing a monster. It always makes me so tense and I love it
- Vampires and werewolves, both sexy and monstrous
- “Let’s do this thing we normally would never because death is round the corner!”
- Not knowing who to trust, or being betrayed by the person you thought you could (always breaks my heart in the best way!)
- Soulmate AU but make it horror (or lean into the horror of a soul bond?)
- A sense of foreboding and creeping dread
- The deeper we dive, the madder we become
- Horror as a result of some past trauma, i.e. violent poltergeists because of an injustice from a century ago or inflicting the trauma you received onto someone new

Favourite Horror Canons

Is this overkill? Yeah, probably. But! Just for an idea of the kind of canons I like. For any of my requests, I’m happy for fusions/AUs set in these worlds or using the plots/monsters/horrors of any of these canons. I’d also be up for crossovers with pretty much any of them if that’s a direction you want to go in!

Movies & TV Shows:
- Scream (mostly just the first movie, though)
- Ready or Not
- The Mummy/The Mummy Returns (do these count? I don’t care, I’m including them!)
- Get Out
- Pretty Little Liars
- The Killer Inside Me
- The Cornetto Trilogy
- What We Do in the Shadows
- The Haunting (1999 version — so bad it’s good)
- The Faculty (see above)
- Interview with the Vampire
- Freaky
- Marble Hornets

Comics:
- Morning Glories by Nick Spencer
- Uzumaki by Junji Ito
- Black Hole by Charles Burns
- The Enigma of the Amigara Fault by Junji Ito
- Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Books:
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
- Wilder Girls by Rory Power
- 90s teenage horror books
- Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
- The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
- The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
- Pretty Marys All in a Row by Gwendolyn Kiste
- Horns by Joe Hill
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- Bird Box by Josh Malerman
- "Sandkings" by George R.R. Martin

Games:
- Oxenfree
- Darkest Dungeon
- Abe’s Odyssey
- Lake of Voices
- Monster Prom
- We Know the Devil

General Likes

…I really apologize that this section is so long and just KEEPS. GROWING. I keep trying to whittle it down but I just like so much stuff and keep finding new things that make me happy.

- Casefic
- Darkfic *
- PWP
- Angst, all the angst, there is seriously no such thing as "too much angst"
- Hurt/comfort & whump **
- Second Person POV
- Pining, including unrequited even for requested ships
- Bathing/washing, being dried with a towel
- Power dynamics being explored
- Forced proximity setups: snowed in, trapped/stranded/handcuffed together, huddling for warmth, too sick to move, captivity etc.
- Being emotionally overloaded or overwhelmed
- Height differences
- Touch-starved or stoic characters
- Sad or self-destructive or angry or self-loathing characters, suffering for any reason but also possibly for reasons they brought on themselves
- Bisexual characters
- Ghosts
- Cooking and food, especially food sharing
- Enemies and annoyances to lovers, rivalries especially flirty ones
- Lotsa repressed feelings
- Regrets, rejections, repression, all those angsty things
- Soulmate AUs especially words/last words, especially when this trope is plumbed for angst or twisted to be horror
- Horror ***
- Nonsexual intimacy
- Guilt-laden infidelity
- Messy characters in extremely messy situations

—

Things I opt-in to: mentioned past relationships or background ships, major character death, experimental formats inc. interactive fiction, pregnancy (but not breeding kink, that’s a DNW), graphic violence, sad or ambiguous endings, suicide, ships breaking up or one/both of them dying (or killing each other)

—

All of the below are non-exhaustive lists to illustrate what I like in some of my broader likes — but feel free to go off-script if you think it’ll fit a ship well. As long as it doesn’t hit my DNWs, I’m pretty open! This is in case you want extra springboards for ideas.

*Things I like in darkfic: noncon and dub con; Came Back Wrong; Something Made Them Do It; betrayal; grief; dealing with past trauma or receiving the trauma within the fic; suicide or dealing with suicidal thoughts (or being gaslit into suicide); being haunted (figuratively or literally) by past wrongs they committed; actions motivated by self-loathing or loneliness; torture; revenge; non-consensual non-sexual touch or violation; boundary violations in general, and anything appropriate from any other list :D

**Things I like in hurt/comfort: whump; sickness; injury; comfort from the enemy; being severely bloodied or beaten; overworking to the point of sickness; touch-starvation; emotional hurt heaped high; feeling dead inside; feeling undeserved of comfort; bathing/washing; comfort applied by the person who hurt them; being embarrassed about their hurt; the comforter being embarrassed or guilty that they are attracted to or aroused by the hurt party; pregnancy and related sickness or discomfort; sex as comfort; all the pining possible; being hurt trying to protect the person they care about; forced proximity; crying when you’ve been trying so hard to hold it in

***Things I like in horror: please see my above list!

Art Likes (and some prompts)

I like a wide variety of art! Bold colours, black & white/greyscale, jewel tones, dark neons.

I love interesting compositions and perspectives, and shots that feel like the characters were caught in the moment. I like most tones — fluffy and bright or dark and angsty or intimate and intense.

I love size differences emphasised in less traditional ways: big men kneeling in front of small women; big muscular women with huge hands clutching their smaller partner; small women threatening bigger partner etc. But I also like the traditional ways too, with men with large hands holding small women, people leaning down to kiss their partner etc. etc.

For horror, this could also include huge monsters or threats, possibly some interesting perspectives or framing that feel uncomfortable or threatening. Or even protective against a greater evil.

Size difference isn’t all I like, though! I also like intimacy in all its forms (sexual or non-sexual), interesting lighting, things that look both dangerous and sexy, anyone kneeling for anything, hand-holding, blood, characters who can’t bare to look at the other, and anything that shows angst. But also, I don’t know dick about art, so whatever you think is best probably is!

I like comics and gifs too! I don’t have specific art-related DNWs. I have more specific ideas in my individual prompts below, but yeah, I’m pretty open to whatever way the wind takes you, if you want to make art! Any rating is fine, also. And while I’m open to quiet, haunting or gothic horror in art, I’m also open to gore, blood, body horror, torture, all that good stuff, if that’s what you’re into!

Some general art horror prompts (but these are just suggestions, feel free to take anything from any of my other general likes or request-specific prompts!):
- Injuries
- The ghost of someone they loved or killed haunting them
- Isolation
- Body horror, especially mixed with natural imagery: fungus growing out of them or insects crawling out of their mouth/nostrils etc., or plant matter coming out of their chest
- Equally, any kind of monstrous transformation or bodily corruption/necrosis would be cool
- Gothic framing, evil looking buildings, threatening architecture, being isolated from their group etc.
- Blood sucking
- Cannibalism
- Being chased
- Looking at their reflection in a knife or shard of mirror or some other weapon
- Crafting weapons in general
- Captured or captivity or torture
- Something lurking in the shadows

Smut Likes

Rough sex, vanilla sex, hand kink, enthusiastic cunnilingus, public use and gangbangs, being held down, biting/scratching, bittersweet sex, noncon, dubcon, accidental stimulation, heat cycles, face-fucking, extremely emotionally charged sex, spanking, casual D/s, first times, humour and awkwardness, aftercare, femsub, fingerfucking, shoving fingers into mouths, public and semi-public sex, Bad Guys Made Them Do It, pining while fucking, sex pollen inc. only one partner doused, affectionate use of the word "slut/whore" (like "you’re a good little slut"), showing trust through sex acts, voyeurism, masturbation (solo, mutual and guided), frottage, clothed and semi-clothed sex, handholding while fucking

I’m okay with either come/cum as spelling and with pussy, cunt or vagina as terminology for vaginas.

DNWs

- Anyone under 16 involved in explicit sex
- Unaroused victim in noncon (but arousal can be a fear response or induced rather than real arousal)
- Scat, watersports (except omorashi), emetophilia, belly kinks (inc. feeding & inflation), pussy slapping, fisting, oviposition, breeding kink
- CSA in anything more than mentions (other kinds of CA are fine to be featured)
- The phrase “to the hilt”
- Mpreg
- Readerfic
- Lovecraftian horror
- Any symptoms of diseases with coughing or difficulty breathing except if it’s hanahaki (and other non-lung diseases are fine, especially for body horror!)

The Folk of the Air

Jude/Cardan
Body Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Gothic Horror, Institutional Horror, Killer Horror, Medical Horror, Monster Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, Survival Horror

I cannot tell you how much I love this trilogy of books. Jude is just such a great character — she’s filled with angst, and yet is so determinedly active about it, rather than ever letting herself dwell. I love anyone willing to burn themselves to the ground for what they want. And Cardan is just a wonderful hot mess. And damn, that chemistry is sizzling.

I love them in any era of canon, though I do have a strong soft spot for Cruel Prince-era. I’d also be up for anything that sowed seeds of doubts between them post-canon, especially for Jude, since the relationship always feels so fragile for her.

I think there’s a lot of room for horror in this world. The fae are horrifying in many ways, and there are creatures besides that I’m sure we don’t know about. Their treatment of mortals is always unkind, and their treatment of each other…doesn’t seem to be much better.

Prompts:
- Valerian comes back to life — and he Comes Back Wrong. He’ll make Jude pay.
- Jude and Cardan’s honeymoon, they decide to go stay at one of the other court’s. But something isn’t right there. Perhaps the customs are dark and horrific, or maybe the court is haunted.
- A group of mortals are capturing and experimenting on fae. Perhaps Cardan or Vivienne is captured, or maybe Vivienne, and someone needs to save them.
- People are dying in the court. Is it a strange new curse? Is there a killer on the loose? Or is there something darker even still that is causing these people to stay away?
- The King & Queen are tasked with ousting a nasty case of vampirism that has been spreading. It’s especially hard to stamp out given some of the fae folk have started to worship the immortal beings.
- Environmental horror, with the mortal land poisoning the seas catching up to the Undersea and causing a great sickness.
- Pre-relationship, Jude is captured by the bullies and drugged with faerie fruit. She’s kept as their prisoner, and used by them. I would love to see her using her particular brand of contrariness to come to enjoy what’s happening to her.
- Cardan’s curse means that Jude’s pregnancy turns monstrous and they must find a dark magic ritual to fix it.
- Bad Guys Made Them Do It is always a fun time, perhaps because of some ancient ritual? Or just sick fae games?

DC Comics

Edward Nygma
Body Horror, Gothic Horror, Institutional Horror, Killer Horror, Medical Horror, Monster Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, Survival Horror

I have such a soft spot for Edward Nygma it’s unreal. I’m not sure when it started, but his whole shtick is so profoundly uncool that I can’t help but love him?

My favourite Edward Nygma era is when he had lost some of his memories and turned to the good side, but struggled to resist the lure of crime. Him desperately scrambling to keep a hold of his morals is just so juicy to me. But, I also do love crime happy Riddler, overtaken by his obsession with riddles or just delighting in causing trouble. As long as he hates himself a little bit, I’m happy. (Side note, this is why I’m really excited for Paul Dano’s interpretation, because I reckon he’ll bring a good level of weird-and-self-hating that jives with my headcanon.)

I’m open to shipfic, but gen is also very much welcome.

Prompts:
- Arkham Asylum is a hotbed of dread and terror at the best of times. But the new head doctor, Dr. Jonathan Crane, and his highly experimental medicine has made it much, much worse…
- A parasite or lycanthropy or similar is spreading through Gotham — and fast. Can Edward escape it? Will he try to save anyone, and how does that go wrong? Or he is more interested in saving his own skin despite the guilt it causes?
- For the above prompt, I could also see it going the way of Edward trying to get help from a superhero, maybe Bruce or Tim or Dick, who hasn’t been infected/possessed/etc.
- Someone starts leaving Edward riddles (solvable or unsolvable, up to you), giving him a taste of his own medicine. What terrible ordeals must he go through to solve them or find the person responsible or save the person/people in danger?
- Edward throws his lot in with a fellow villain, but he didn’t expect how far his new friend was going to take things and now he’s not sure how to get out of it…
- Haunted houses are always my jam, especially when they include gothic feels. Perhaps he’s hired by someone as a PI to investigate a haunting?
- Art or stories that capture the feeling of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Hill would be really cool!
- I think the angst would be very juicy if Edward was transformed into a vampire against his will.
- Edward is murdered and must haunt someone to try and get them to help catch the killer.

Archer

>>>Cheryl Tunt & Cyril Figgis & Lana Kane & Pam Poovey & Ray Gillette & Sterling Archer
>>>Pam Poovey & Sterling Archer
Body Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Gothic Horror, Institutional Horror, Killer Horror, Medical Horror, Monster Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, Science-Fiction Horror, Survival Horror, Violent Horror

This is probably my most rewatched show of all time, I just love it.

I forgot to include Kreiger and Malory in my first nom, but feel free to include them too. Any combination of characters is fine by me, actually, so go nuts. Also open to any ships you want to throw in there! As long as Archer is there, I’m happy. Leaning into the comedy of the show is great, but if you want to take it on a darker spin, please feel free to. I seem to be one of the few that really loved Dreamland, and the darker, less comedic/more dramedy feel of that season.

I would be into any era of canon for this. But, apart from the suggestions below, I would be very up for a coma-season-style pastiche! You can come up with something new, or set it in one of the canons I mention up top of my letter. I have also included some coma-season-esque prompts.

For art, while I’m happy for it be set during Archer Vice, I really prefer Pam’s look when she isn’t addicted to coke. (But her build in any other season is great — I mean, her look in Danger Island was impeccable.)

- I am up for diseases that produce body changing symptoms, as long as it adheres to my DNW (no symptoms of coughing or difficulty breathing)
- Archer’s worse fears are realised when Krieger, possibly against his will, fits him with bionic parts. But Krieger fucks up, and the bionic parts start acting of their own accord.
- Haunted house! This could be the ISIS headquarters, the Tunt Manor, or somewhere else entirely. Maybe Krieger has let something loose, or perhaps its not manmade at all, but something much darker.
- Serial killer on the loose at Tunt Manor
- Coma: The gang are lab rats for monsters or aliens
- Coma: Werewolves, vampires, zombies, any of that good stuff!
- Coma: Wild Western horror! Maybe Archer rolls up as the mysterious stranger in a town where things just aren’t quite right or where a monster (or horrifying person) has been terrorising the town.
- Coma: Everyone works at a bordello in a town where strange things are happening.

Ready or Not

>>>Charity Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
>>>Charity Le Domas/Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
>>>Solo: Charity Le Domas
Body Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Gothic Horror, Killer Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, Survival Horror

Pretty sure this is the most perfect movie in existence, I love it so much. And look, my weakness for haughty women becomes me — I freaking love Grace and Daniel, but Charity stole my heart a little, I’m not going to lie. I want more of her!

You can have her softening the same way Daniel does, or you can go full villain with her. Either way would make me very happy. And while I didn’t request it, I’d be open to Charity/Daniel too, I’m just silly and forgot to put it in the tag set :)

Possible Prompts:
- Grace married into the family a few years ago, and pulled Old Maid. It’s Charity, a few years later, marrying Daniel, that pulls Hide and Seek.
- It’s not just the family who is evil: the House itself has its own machinations.
- Charity isn’t happy with the power the Le Domas’ have amassed, she wants more. So she makes a new, even more dangerous pact with Mr. Le Bail.
- AU where Grace attempts to convince Charity, rather than Daniel, to help her, and Charity is willing to see how far she will go before she turns her in.
- Classic time loops, this time with extra Charity :D
- The deal turns out not to affect those married into the family. Charity and Grace make unlikely bedfellows, but when no one will believe what happened to them, perhaps they turn to each other.
- Ready or Not, this time with extra vampires, werewolves or zombies, please!
- This house has seen some shit and it is full of ghosts. Literally.
- Charity, mistaking them for Grace, accidentally kills one of the Le Domas family members. And there are dire consequences for that.
- There’s hints in the film that Charity has a very tragic backstory. I would love to see that explored!

Sin Eater - Megan Campisi

>>>May Owen & Original Sin Eater
>>>May Owens & Ruth
>>>May Owens/Country Mouse
>>>May Owens/Original Female Character
>>>Solo: May Owens
Body Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Gothic Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror

I love a good alternate history and this one was great. May had such a strong voice and I was so compelled with the way she struggles into her new role. I love characters that are, at their cores, survivors and May is definitely that. She is going to scrabble out of just about anything and everything, if it kills her.

I also found the world fascinating, not to mention her job. I really liked the secondary characters but I would also be totally up for a cast of original characters! For May/OFC, I’m open to either another Sin Eater, or someone else entirely.

Possible Prompts:
- It turns out there is dark magic involved in the deaths, and May must ferret out some of what’s going on.
- Eating the sins has more of a metaphysical effect than expected, and starts to corrupt May. Or, she can hear the voices of those whose sins she’s eaten.
- Country Mouse goes missing or comes into danger somehow (or gets involved in something that is over his head) and May does what she can to help.
- In her new life in the country, May thinks she’s escaped some of the horror she left behind. But the past has a way of catching up to you.
- May meets a band of new Sin Eaters and thinks she can make herself at home. But it turns out, there’s something much darker going on than she initially thought.
- May is captured and tested for witch craft.
- May sees something she shouldn’t again, and someone is set out to stop her. She can’t say what she’s seen, for nobody would listen to her.
- May can live with some of these house guests — until one of them turns out to be not what they seem.

Stardew Valley

>>>Solo: Sandy
Body Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Gothic Horror, Killer Horror, Monster Horror, Paranormal Horror, Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, Survival Horror, Violent Horror

When will Confused Ape let me marry Sandy? Enquiring minds want to know. For now, I settle for fan fiction about her. I’ve requested her solo, but I’m equally happy for her to be shipped with any character you want. I love how bright and chirpy she is, and how wistful she is for the Valley. I’m open to any interpretations for her backstory, why she came to work at the shop, and what she knows of Mr. Qi’s dealings!

I really like horror that takes place in an unexpected places, and I feel like there are not enough horrors set in deserts out there.

Possible Prompts:
- Epistolary horror of some kind — perhaps corresponding with someone in the Valley, it becomes clear over a series of letters that something is Wrong, or someone finding her diary entries after something’s happened. Or she finds the diary entries of Mr. Qi or someone from the casino!
- Sandy investigates the Skull Caverns and finds more than she bargained for.
- A Laura-esque tale where one (or more) of the Valley villagers comes to investigate what happened after Sandy went missing. I know I requested her specifically, but having her loom large in this kind of story would be a lot of fun too!
(For art, a Laura pastiche, with a massive portrait above the fireplace, would be great too.)
- Gothic flair in the desert — maybe ghosts, maybe just things being Wrong or off, but Sandy feels like she’s losing her mind. And maybe she is, or maybe there is something darker at work.
- Stuck in a time loop where things are going horrifically wrong.
- Someone claims to be someone from the Valley, but the details of their lives are just. not. adding. up.
- A small cult starts up in the desert.
- She finds Mr. Qi dead, and now has to figure out if she’s safe, all alone out there.