#horror options

[petr1kov]

wokekishi07 writing the next silent hill girlboss mc:

[composeregg]

edit (10/23/2024) now that the poll is over: Original version, with 10 questions, from April 2023 here

And, given that the original is from April 2023, that means I can very easily say:

No, this was not an ISAT reference!

Just because I use parentheses and 2nd person pov and love the same concepts of what a time loop can do to a person doesn't mean it's ISAT

(Yes, I like ISAT, the original poll is why I was recommended the game! But if you look at the original, you can see all the origins of the options to choose from, including what spurred me on with the moss option from the replies)

If I were going to make something for ISAT, I would never be so vague, you can simply look at my ao3 for proof of that

[moonilit]

Bruce’s Goth furry Aesthetic VS Dick’s flamboyant Disco Noir aesthetic: Fight.

Idk I say we let Dick make it

[creekfiend]

Kuzu: I get the impression that the vampire interview is about if everybody from your local queer scene was immortal and you couldn’t get away from them. This is an effective vampire premise because unlike most, it fills me with genuine horror

Pip: yeah vampire interview is like "what if there were genuinely so few of you that if you wanted to be around anyone who you could even slightly relate to you would have to be in a bullshit theater cult in France." absolutely chilling to imagine, thanks

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

Electrocuting the mimic cutely because I can <3

Storytime: There was really only one time when Stanley was in actual very genuine danger of being revealed/captured by the governt. It all started with a traveling group of amateur "anomaly hunters" (AKA. poachers) arriving in town looking to make a quick buck by profitting off of whatever exotic creatures they managed to catch.

You can already kinda see where this is going.

So, the group arrived in town to harangue the townsfolk and wildlide in search of anything interesting they could potentially smuggle or sell off. However, they weren't a very experienced or organized group of poachers, and so they hadnt realized that Gravity Falls was a hot-spot for anomalies.

By sheer coincidence and luck, they somehow ended up missing every single sign of an anomaly that happened to pop up behind their backs unnoticed and then disappear out of sight when they looked. Just as the group deemed the town a dead-end and was prepping to leave, they noticed a strange tourist trap on the edge of town, owned by an even stranger "man" and his brother.

They decided to investigate, yada yada, and they eventually found out that Stanley was, in fact, definitely not human and most importantly: profitable!

So, when no one was looking unser the cover of night, they decided to jump Stan and restrain him like an animal while they discussed how they should transport him back to their van.

Too bad Stanford was there to throw a wrench in their plan! That was the first and only time Ford killed people with his own two hands in this AU. He didn't regret it.

[the-crooked-library]

another Nosferatu detail that I personally consider delightful is that, toward the end of the movie, when Von Franz tells Ellen she could've been a great priestess in another age, the specific example he uses is a "priestess of Isis."

Isis, in Ancient Egyptian myth, is known for having reassembled her murdered husband Osiris from scattered body parts, reviving him (and making him the first mummy) as king of the afterlife.

Adding to that the lilacs, symbolizing rebirth, and a bright new dawn - I must admit, I struggle to understand the people who think that the finale is so simple as to exist within the limitations of single, tragic interpretation. It's not.

Death is also a beginning.

[urgohthewanderer]

suppertime!

[stars-obsession-pit]

A black-haired, amnesiac teen comes to in an alleyway, hunched over an unearthly shadow.

There’s something in his mouth. Instincts kick in, and he chomps down, shattering the item. Whatever it was, its shards rapidly melt into a burst of liquid, and the shadow below him dissolves away with a shrill screech. He instinctively swallows the fluid, and it burns like acid down his throat. From it, a strange warmth suffuses through his whole being.

Something clicks in his head.

Jason Todd. His name is Jason Todd. He’d forgotten that, before.

He coughs. A few drops of the liquid spatter onto the ground, briefly illuminating the pavement in a vivid green glow before rapidly evaporating into the air.

He pushes himself to his feet shakily, leaning against the wall beside him for support while he catches his breath.

What the hell happened to him? What had he just eaten?

His recent memories were still muddled, feeling instinctual rather than logical. Not quite human. His older memories were still clear though, providing a bit more insight.

And the most recent of those memories was of… pain.

A timer ticking down. Trying to escape. Hoping desperately to be saved. Getting neither. The bomb going off.

He’d died.

He’d died.

Yet here he was. Alive, if disoriented. In an alley, not a warehouse.

After a couple more minutes of pulling himself together, Jason pushes off the wall and starts to walk towards the end of the alleyway. He has to find a way to contact Bruce. He’ll know what to do, surely.

[bubblybloob]

The moment I realized Scarlet Hollow had romance options after thinking the flirting stuff was just for shits and giggles and I had flirted with everyone at least once without realizing it could lead to something more until Stella invited me into her house on day four, that was the funniest shit ever and I’m a colossal dumbass.

[spider-mask09]

I LOVE INTERNET HORROR ‼️‼️‼️

[classichorrorblog]

Tales From The Crypt - "The Bribe" - (1994)

[revenantghost]

So Vash is really old, right. And there's probably little legit dentistry on No Man's Land.

Does this mean that Vash regrows teeth like a shark?

[dareduffie]

loving sam winchester is a trap that you will not ever find your way out of. i've been here for over a decade. i keep thinking i've escaped. and then it's 2 in the morning. a tuesday. i'm crying because sam winchester fought tooth and nail to break free of his upbringing's teachings that his life is not his own, only to learn that it isn't, it never was, and he was destined from birth to belong to the devil

[bonebrokebuddy]

I get that this is due to people not read comics but, if you want a fun lighthearted batfam dynamic, I cannot recommend enough putting your story and characters in the Silver Ages. I see so much fanon material that would fit in this setting perfectly and it pains me that it’s not more popular or well known.

If you don’t know what the silver age of comics is, I’d recommend checking out this article!

And here for the 1956 Comics Code Authority.

It might not be in continuity anymore but the silver ages were such a large era of comics that defined the characters. And the format & restrictions of the silver ages allows you to easily bypass several common issues folks have with plots. In modern comics, there’s constant interpersonal drama because there has to be, if you resolve all those issues then you can’t sell more comics & they lose a lot of tension.

But due to the Comic Code Authority that is no longer an issue!

Randomly ignoring a dark past that makes connection between characters difficult [the poor aging of Jason’s bag of heads making it difficult for him to reunite with the rest of the batfam, for example] because it doesn’t fit with the theme you want?:

Comics are episodic in this era. Think of it like a early 2000s TV show. Things that happened in past comics/episodes often won’t affect the current story at all as the setting resets to default at the start of every comic. Additionally, literally all gore, torture, or explicit descriptions of murder is banned due to CCA restrictions, so you can choose to have it simply never have happened!

Characters that don’t fit at all in a story but you want a crossover for?:

The Silver Ages had SO MANY crossovers of heroes solely bc it sold comics. How compatible they are doesn’t matter in the slightest. The thinnest of reasons why they met works perfectly. You can even just have the characters know each other already and go “I know who can help me with this case! [Insert character you want here]! I met them in my last trip to Antarctica!” You only need maybe one sentence, two if you’re feeling frisky, to explain why they met and then you’re free to run wild.

Want a character to randomly acquire a superpower or meet a long lost cousin they have for one comic and then it’s never mentioned again?

I cannot state how frequently this happens. Silver Age comics were pretty much written cover first. Meaning the cover was made and the story was written after with the philosophy of “if my comic cover is more bizzare and eye catching then kids will buy it!” Like, there are multiple comics where Superman’s head got turned into an ant and Batman gets powers practically every other World’s Finest issue. Like it’s not even an “au” to do these things. That’s just what the Silver Ages were like.

Comic science and comic physics run rampant as well as bizarre villains! You can have so much fun with this!! Heroes often play the straight-man in bizarre scenarios with over-the-top villains in this era, making that aspect shine brightly can make for an inherently funny plot. You could either keep it fun and light or turn it into a psychological horror as the characters realize they can’t disobey the CCA code and have to follow a specific plot.

Also the restrictions of the CCA at the time would also help create some fun and unique plots if you wanted to keep the plot time-period accurate.

There’s a lot of restrictions but there are still many ways to create conflict in your fic! Plenty can come from the CCA directly!

Canon or HC LGBT+ characters could be pressured to not come out or face tremendous backlash. Time accurate homophobia, essentially.

McCarthyism and paranoia ran wild. Oh no someone suspected your blorbo of being a communist/socialist and now it’s ruining their life!

Characters dealing with how the CCA’s restrictions/their reality is inherently bigoted and can’t be themselves. (See: comics on topics of racial & religious prejudice aren’t allowed, characters can’t speak in “slang” or “vulgar language” and “good grammar” is emphasized (often targeting minorities), and the sanctity of family must be respected (no divorce, no queer people).

Also! Crazy over-the-top villains with deadly stakes are played with a lighthearted tone. Play it straight and suddenly your comic changed genre into horror if you think about it for more than a second.

Characters that used to be antihero’s are just straight up villains now or suddenly wake up with massive gaps in their memory and no one else can tell them why. There is no grey with the CCA. Just good and evil. Because that would make the villains sympathetic and we can’t have that!

If you want to just have a fun, campy and lighthearted tone however, that’s the Silver Age’s bread and butter. While keeping the CCA’s code in mind is good to keep a Silver Age story feeling time accurate and Silver Age-y, it’s definitely not necessary to follow each and every rule.

Here’s some more links to free silver age comics and places you can go to find information on silver age comics if you want to learn more that aren’t fandom wikis but rather made by nerds with a passion to catalogue and share their interest to others.

Your local library has a decent chance of having an omnibus of 50s-70s comics or you can order one from a nearby library if your local one doesn’t carry them.

A local comic shop or bookstore. Silver age omnibuses & “50 year anniversary/best of” type collections are usually present and have a good variety of silver age comics.

Jenny Blake Isabella (the creator of Black Lightning) has delightful reviews of the Batman Silver Age Omnibus on her blog that add context, critiques, and overall are a delight to read

Takes some hunting but this Silver Age Comic blog has a bunch of single issue reviews of Silver Age Batman comics.

Want a specific issue to read? Here’s super brief summaries of soso many issues curtesy of The Comics Archives blog.

The Internet Archive also has a few:

Batman & Superman world's finest. The Silver Age. Volume one

Justice League of America, the Silver Ages volume 1

Batman: the dynamic duo archives. vol 2 (I cannot find volume 1)

A good tip to find legal and free comics decently intact is to search [comic run title/character hero name & issue number if you have it] + “blog” + “review”.

There are so many in-depth reviews of comics in blogs by comic fans out there that practically share most of the comic panels in the post while giving context to past issues while the poster adds personal insight and opinions on the comic. Is it going to give you the whole issue unfiltered? No. But it allows newbies to get insight from old fans and old fans to get a new perspective on a comic they’ve already read. Blog reviews are such an underrated way to get new fans into comics considering how great of a resource they are! Don’t know if you’ll like a comic run? Read a bunch of reviews on it from different blogs! It’s truly so underrated.

I see a lot of dc fans that don’t read the comics because they don’t like the violence and dark tone of modern comics or don’t know where to start. Simple solution: Why are you reading reading modern comics then? Give the Silver Ages a try! They’re utterly corny and campy & I love them dearly.

They fit all of those bills with the CCA. Plus, with the episodic stories of that era, you can just pick up an omnibus, open it at a random issue and start reading. Hell, you can toss a stack of silver age issues in the air 52-pickup style and read them that way and you’re still be fine. You rarely, if ever, need knowledge from previous comics as they’ll often directly explain what happened to you. If you really need previous context, just like modern comics, they’ll directly tell you which issue(s) to read first.

Lastly.

It’s good to keep in mind the “By it’s time. For its time. Of its time” rule of comic analysis when reading old runs. Comics are: relevant during their time of publishing, for its intended audience (in this era, young american boys with a non-nuanced worldview) & with little care of how it’ll age, just that it’ll sell.

How history ties itself to comics is fascinating but also it’s good to be a little “👀👀 uh zoinks scoob that was a bad narrative or character decision that didn’t age well” and not dismiss it because that poor interpretation does have historical value as how it shows the moral, social, and political conflicts of the time in a neat little bow. Even if that bow is like, puke green.

Writers of comics will follow the misogynistic and racist ideals along the historical & social conflicts and ideals during the time of the comic’s publishing date. It’s uh, just kinda something ya gotta deal with when reading a lot of old comics runs. Most collections of silver age Batman/best ofs don’t often have comics that aged super badly but if you end up encountering any, it’s good to keep this in mind.

If anyone is inspired to write something based off of this, please tag me so I can read it!

[qin-qin16]

Alright, Im curious now