Fic or Treat!

[royalblue31]

ficortreat

royalblue31's Door

DW username: royalblue31

Light is on for: Anybody :D 

What's in the Bowl? Fic, Halloween-themed rec basket, rec baskets in general

Let Me Know:

For fics, these are the fandoms and ships/characters I can write:

MCU 
Ships: Bucky/Wanda, Steve/Nat, Kate/Yelena, Peter Parker & Wanda, Steve & Yelena, Clint & Kate
Characters: Kate Bishop, Natasha, Wanda, Melina Vostokoff, Yelena Belova 

Stranger Things 
Ships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Max
Characters: Robin

Scream (Movies)
Ships: Gale/Jennifer, Sam & Tara, Core Four, Core Four + Gale, Core Four + Gale + Sidney + Kirby 

Severance (TV)
Character: Helly R

Prompt me if there's something you've been jonesing for in a fic! Let me know your DNWs, if you want a happy ending or a sad ending or character study etc etc etc. And if there is a fandom or ship or character combo cocktail (platonic or not) you're interested that I haven't listed here, don't hesitate to ask. Who knows, I might be able to deliver! Link me as well if you want me to gift it to you on AO3 :D

For Halloween-themed rec baskets, this is based on something I do for myself every October to celebrate the season, kind of like a checklist of Halloween-adjacent books, movies and shows to taste test during the month. I'd be more than happy to curate a basket of recs for you! Tell me what you like and I'll make you a rec basket with films, shows or series, books and (if applicable) fics and fanvids or vids in general.

Or, if you want a different theme or general or trope, hit me up and I'll make you a rec basket for that! 

Other info: For fics, I do not write ABO, Non-con, Explicit/PWP or Character x Reader. 

Comments

[senmut]

Fic Or Treat --

Stranger Things, Robin... you're not scary

[royalblue31]

Lovely prompt!

[royalblue31]

Hello again! Here you go: Monsters. Happy spooky season!

[senmut]

Love it!

[royalblue31]

Oh yay I'm so glad!

[impala_chick]

I'd love a Halloween themed rec basket! I'd also take any Steve/Nat recs you might want to throw in. Spooky/angst/ghost related things are all great.

[royalblue31]

Coming right up!

[royalblue31]

Hi hey hello, here you go:

Spooky/angst/ghost are the three words I'd use to describe Mike Flanagan's take on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Miniseries trailer here, book synopsis here. If you haven't tried either, I highly highly highly recommend. I like how the miniseries is not a word for word adaptation, so you can enjoy both in their own right. The miniseries builds towards its climax by alternating between the past (when the Crain siblings were children and had just moved into Hill House) and the present (the Crain siblings are all adults down, still haunted by the fall out of their stay at Hill House) and it weaves such an emotionally cathartic experience that I feel is rare nowadays. A lot of horror will scare the crap out of you, but very few can punch you in the heart.

As for the book, the opening paragraph is still my favorite opening paragraph in a horror novel ever:

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

And if you do end up enjoying Mike Flanagan's work, he's also done an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation miniseries called The Fall of the House of Usher which releases on Netflix today. It looks fun!

Two more movies with some angsty spooky ghosty feels:

The Others (2001) -- Trailer -- Grace moves into a new house with her two photosensitive children in Jersey. When a series of inexplicable events occur, Grace starts believing that her house is haunted.

Last Night in Soho (2021) -- Trailer -- An aspiring fashion designer is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. However, the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

And if you want some lighter, more fun horror to even things out, I really enjoyed Ready Or Not (2019) -- Trailer -- After the wedding ceremony of a young woman, her new in-laws force her to participate in a seemingly innocent game. Things soon turn bloody and sinister, revealing the sick rituals of the family.

Now, books...

If you can get a copy of this, I highly recommend Camilla Grudova's Children of Paradise. It's a relatively short book about a group of misfit employees working at one of the longest running (aka haunted lol) cinemas in their town.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix is also enjoyable. Another group of employees working at a haunted workplace, except this time it's pretty much an IKEA.

Steve/Nat recs:

Technically, this is Steve/Nat, Steve/Bucky, Steve/Bucky/Nat, with some Steve/Bucky/Peggy thrown in, but I think it's an amazing one: Ghost Story by Speranza.

A darker, explicit Steve/Nat that is dripping in lovely, lovely angst: Body on Fire by glittercake.

A angsty fic about where Natasha goes after dying on Vormir. Don't worry, it has a happy ending! I Turn Around, and There You Are by chalantness.

Happy spooky season!

[impala_chick]

Yay, thank you so much for putting this together!! This is a great list. I've already watched The Haunting of Hill House and Last Night in Soho and I really liked them both, so I bet the other recs are going to be right up my alley.

That's so neat that you posted the intro to Hill House, because I definitely have seen that text before but I didn't know it was from that book.

Happy Halloween <3

[kalloway]

Fic or Treat! I'd love a Halloween-themed rec basket. (Please no jump scares or mummies.)

[royalblue31]

I've got you! Coming right up!

[royalblue31]

Hello again, basket of halloween recs here:

Books
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. The best way I could think of describing Spinning Silver is to call it a twist on fairytales. It has strong female characters (each of them with unique, different strengths), fantasy elements, magic and humor.

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. Come for the music, stay for the friendship. My Best Friend's Exorcism is written to be a horror, but what really shines most about the story is the friendship between the main characters. There's a lot of heart and ingenuity in this book. There's humor in it too. Mild horror--some surface-level mentions and, obv, the titular exorcism. Every chapter is titled after a song, so it comes with its own playlist!

Movies & Series
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown -- Trailer -- I like to recommend the Great Pumpkin for its animation. It really gets into the spirit of Halloween, and I like how it's supposed to be a kid's cartoon about kids, but really, they're all like tiny little sad adults.

Corpse Bride -- Trailer -- Again, I like recommending this because of the work that went into it. The stop-motion work in this movie is sublime. And I like when factors like that add to the overall impact of the movie. It's just something different for a change from what we usually get, aka perfect for the season!

Knives Out -- Trailer -- Knives Out is a fun whodunnit with a cosy, fall backdrop. Daniel Craig is a delight and I like seeing Ana de Armas in roles where she isn't pigeonholed as the bombshell.

I would also rec you the Addams Family bundle, from the classic sitcom in black and white, to the iconic Sonnenfeld films, to the Broadway musical, to Tim Burton's Wednesday on Netflix. Hopefully, these Youtube links work: MGM has uploaded a bunch episodes from 1940s The Addams Family on Youtube here. And the Broadway musical was uploaded by Discover Theatre on Youtube here.

Happy spooky season!

[kalloway]

Thank you so much! I'll see what's available from the library as soon as I can. ^_^

And oh, it's been absolute decades since I saw vintage Addams Family! These will be a delight to watch. I used to have one of the books of the original comics but it got misplaced in a complicated series of moves. (Alas!)