#ndu event: 30 days of nightmare dorks

[sylphidine]

Trying to make it easier on myself this year in my writing goals.

Since I'm moderating the @rotg-halloween event, I know I can't do justice to banging out full-blown works WHILE AT THE SAME TIME trying to wrangle posting and reblogging everyone else's entries.

I've resigned myself to doing microfics and drabbles instead.

And since I am the mod, I'm exercising my mod powers by choosing to write Nightmare Dork University content for the event. Doing so will hopefully assuage my guilty conscience about not doing an NDU Back To School event or an NDU Autumn Carnival event.

Prompts I'll be writing for [and if anyone else wants to use these for NDU tales & art inspo, feel free]:

19 October 2023 / Day One: Hill

20 October 2023 / Day Two: Wormwood

21 October 2023/ Day Three: Train

22 October 2023 / Day Four: Bone

23 October 2023 / Day Five: Insubstantial

24 October 2023 / Day Six: Exit

25 October 2023 / Day Seven: Apart

26 October 2023 / Day Eight: Melting

27 October 2023/ Day Nine: Kaiju

28 October 2023 / Day Ten: Guide

29 October 2023 / Day Eleven: Evening

30 October 2023 / Day Twelve: Hungry

31 October 2023 / Day Thirteen: Overlord

A bit of self-indulgence [Sylph-indulgence?], since October is my birthday month [I was born three days before Halloween].

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

30 Days Of Nightmare Dorks - 2021 Edition

We’re counting down the days to this year’s celebration of eight years of the Wardrobeverse and Nightmare Dork University!

Event guidelines, the short version: Reblog older material or create new material on one, some, or all of the days in the month of April 2021.

Event guidelines, the long version:

The goal of this event is to post as much Nightmare Dork University material as possible each and every day during the month of April, to celebrate eight years of NDU.

This event will run primarily on Tumblr, but links to DeviantArt, Dreamwidth, Archive Of Our Own, etc. are acceptable. 

The event runs from 12:01AM Eastern US Time on Thursday, April 1st until 11:59PM EDT on Friday, April 30th.

Unlike other fandom events, there is not a hard-and-fast prompt list for each day.  There will be suggested prompts which will range from the sublime to the ridiculous, but no one *HAS* to use them.

Also unlike other fandom events, reblogs of previously created material are welcome, but creation of original material is welcome as well.

Inspiration can be drawn from the Wardrobeverse, the collegeverse, the metaverse, and any associated AUs. Your imagination is the only limit.

OCs are welcome and encouraged to interact with our NDU boys, as are other RotG/GoC characters.

Don’t feel like you ***must*** post a piece Every... Single... DAY.  Burnout is not fun.  But do try to post at least ONE piece during the month of April 2021.

Be sure to tag your works within the body of your entry with @366daysofnightmaredorks.  You can also use #30daysofndu or as #30 days of nightmare dorks in one of the first 5 tags, but that’s not always as reliable.

Visual, aural, textile, and literary works are allowed - fanart, fanfiction, gifs, edits/manips, cosplay, fanmixes, crafts, incorrect quotes, or ask-and-answer.  

Please tag works accordingly, and be sure to use any warnings for sensitive, taboo, and/or mature subjects.  

HAVE FUN, and support your fellow creators.

[gretchensinister]

Prospie

I was slammed with the compulsion to write an NDU story after rewatching Rise of the Guardians on Easter. In this one, Pitch and Pitchiner (and Proto, because he lives in their apartment) are seniors who host a prospective student. They think about what it means that they’re graduating and show that maybe, just maybe, they’ve grown and changed for good at college.

This continues my take that I started in Getting to Know You, which makes this not strictly a realistic college AU.

The prospective student makes this a crossover, but I want it to be a bit of a surprise. But honestly? Who are we thinking of these days when we think Nightmare + Dork? The incoming freshman class is going to be mighty interesting...

***

“Pitchiner!” Pitch storms in from the kitchen, waving a piece of paper at him. “What. Is. This?”

Pitchiner turns to him but doesn’t get up from his seat on the couch, giving him an exasperated look. “You really went deep in your bubble this time, didn’t you? I told you like, nine hundred times that we’re going to host a prospective honors program student on their, you know, interview and visit weekend.”

“Aren’t prospective honors program students only supposed to be hosted by other honors program students?” Pitch snipes.

At this, Pitchiner does stand up. He takes two long steps closer to Pitch until he’s looming over him, his massive arms folded in front of his chest. “Dear,” he says coldly. “I am in the honors program. I’ve been in the honors program the whole time. You think I’d put up with half the shit you say to me if I didn’t know it was bullshit?”

Pitch stammers, but some deep-seated survival instinct stops him from saying anything else coherent.

Pitchiner can’t help but smirk. “Did you really think I was here on a lacrosse scholarship? God! Mr. Black, of the Massachusetts Blacks, my school did not have a lacrosse team. My scholarships are all academic.”

Pitch looks like he’s had a bucket of ice water dumped over him. “But—but—you don’t work!”

Pitchiner steps back a little from Pitch and runs his hand through his hair, sighing. “I don’t work like you do. Because I don’t think it’s healthy.”

Pitch grimaces at him. “You’ve never…” He becomes very interested in a corner of the room. “You’ve never bragged about it.”

Now Pitchiner pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s because I’m not Piki, and Piki’s behavior towards you is fucked up, re: you guys’ accomplishments.”

Pitch has started to crumple the letter in one hand. Pitchiner watches him claim conscious control over one finger at a time until he’s holding the paper normally again, watches him tamp down whatever else might need to be said between them. “Regardless,” he says, focusing on Pitchiner again, “did the hosting committee even see our apartment before approving you as a host? Did they meet Proto? We cannot host an academically promising high school senior here. It’s unseemly.”

“I applied, and I’ll clean,” Pitchiner says. “The prospie doesn’t need to see whatever the fuck is going on in Proto’s room, or ours. He’ll sleep on the couch bed, and if I have to stay up all night to protect him from a taxidermy ferret surprise, I’ll do it.”

Pitch looks down at the unevenly faded blue couch. “I didn’t even know this was a sofa bed.” He sounds oddly distant and defeated, somehow. “I suppose you already have sheets for it.”

Pitchiner shrugs. “Nah, I was going to grab some from the superstore when I went for groceries later. You know I don’t exactly handle things like a general planning an invasion.”

“And yet you do still handle them.” Pitch still sounds weird, like if he was a flavor he’d be a warhead candy with the sour powder washed off. “But of course, you handled me having a seizure, for God’s sake, and I—I.” His fingers are twitching on the paper again.

Pitchiner places his hand on Pitch’s shoulder. “Let me know if you want to crack all this open some other time, all right? You barging in reminded me that I actually do have to start on cleaning, including fighting with Proto about whatever he’s trying to ferment on top of the fridge, because we both know he was lying when he said it was kombucha.” He lets go. “Or, hey, if you don’t want to ever crack it open, well, we’ve only got a couple more months before we graduate.”

He hadn’t really been thinking about what that meant before he said it, but now that he has said it, he and Pitch lock eyes, and Pitchiner thinks Pitch is feeling the same shock he is. Graduation. Leaving this apartment. No longer being forced into physical proximity with each other. If they wanted whatever they had with each other to continue, it couldn’t continue effortlessly or thoughtlessly. If they wanted whatever they had to continue, a lot of unspoken things would need to be said. Otherwise it wasn’t going to last longer than a futon frame propped against a dumpster on move-out day, something that had served them okay at NDU, but not something to bring away from it.

Pitchiner saw the tightness in Pitch’s jaw that usually meant he was thinking about Piki. He didn’t understand all the family baggage that Pitch and his twin carried, but he knew Piki thought of him as an unsuitable partner for Pitch, and a lot of what Pitch did he did in reaction to Piki. But now, even as he expects that tightness to lock Pitch’s jaw for good, it vanishes. “I do think we should talk,” he says. He smiles, and a little of the sour powder is back. “I really do. But maybe after the prospie is gone.”

“Yeah,” Pitchiner says. “For sure.” He grins. “Now are you gonna let me get on with being Mr. Clean or what?”

“The Brawny Man is much hotter,” Pitch fires back, but he still seems a little uneasy. “Pitchiner, our conversation for later is going to be…well, we will not be the first people to have such a conversation. But there are other things that we’ve never talked about. That, at the time, we agreed never to talk about, at least among those of us who were there. Because it wasn’t always all of us, but sometimes, enough times, it was. You know who I mean by us, don’t you?”

Pitchiner nods. “Me. You. Proto. Jack. Piki. You think we need to talk about…that stuff, too?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Pitch says. “It’s always seemed, well, risky to me to speak about even the nightmares. But as we move closer to graduation, it feels to me as if…as if they’re, I mean, as if it’s retreating somehow. Ebbing.”

“We beat it,” Pitchiner says, though he almost said ‘them,’ like Pitch.

“No,” says Pitch, “not yet. Maybe not ever, for me. But I could believe it for you.” He says this last in a rush, as if embarrassed by the feeling hidden beneath that statement. “The point is, there’s something still there. About us. Around us. We know it. And other people can tell. It was my true first thought when I saw a prospective student would be staying with us.”

“Well…” Pitchiner doesn’t like to think about the things Pitch is alluding to, for a lot of different reasons, not least that he can’t be sure if he feels relief or loss at the idea that whatever it is (whatever they are) that focused on them might be leaving them soon. Because what is there to lose? Nightmares, a bunch of shit that has to have been (has to have been) sleep paralysis, too much other stuff that you probably couldn’t take a picture of or hit with a lacrosse stick, and…more than zero things that couldn’t be explained at all. And the sense that whatever tied all these things together, he, Pitchiner, was the perfect shape for it to fill, if he wanted it. And then instead of all these things happening to him, he would happen to other people. “I guess…if the vibes get bad, let’s just agree to not waste time denying that they’re there. But if they’re really going, I think there’s a good chance the prospie might not even notice. I mean, what, his name’s Jonathan. He’s probably like, aggressively normal, or at least only weird in a smart-kid way.”

Pitch nods slowly. “If he’s supposed to hang out with us in his downtime, though…let’s not invite Jack. Just to…reduce the number of reactive elements.”

“Oh, for sure.”

***

           “My, what atrocious vibes that young man had,” Proto remarks as they wave Jon off to his car on Sunday afternoon. “But I do have the feeling that he got all his questions about NDU answered this weekend.”

           Pitchiner and Pitch glance at each other. “Yes,” Pitch says. “I…think we can be confident about that.”

           “He does make me wonder what it’s like to work in the Admissions Department,” Proto says, “but I don’t think I’ll apply. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go follow a lead for a new mold.”

           “I haven’t invited you home because he’s really the best of my relatives,” Pitch says suddenly. “Not because I don’t care.”

           “Everyone’s got relatives,” Pitchiner says vaguely. “Look, when we were just hanging out Saturday night, I kept wanting to bring up that time with the cave. And that story makes me look like I’ve lost my marbles or need an exorcism or something. I have never wanted to bring it up, ever. I don’t even want to allude to it now.”

           “For me it was that time with my shadow,” Pitch says. “But what was weirder was how pissed off I felt about wanting to talk about it. And he didn’t even ask anything that could have remotely led to that topic of conversation.”

           They lean on the railing of the steps outside their apartment and watch a few more prospective students head out, carrying orange and black folders and key chains and pens, all the promotional detritus of NDU. They look pretty normal. And why not? They are normal, right? The only slight oddity is a pair of twins, but when Pitchiner looks again he sees that the girls look nothing alike, and actually don’t even seem to know each other. He’s gotten too jumpy about doubles in his four years here. Just seeing things.

           But then, he has seen a lot of things. And so has Pitch. And Proto. And Jack. And Piki.

           “I was pissed, too,” Pitchiner says. “Not anymore, though. It left when he left. Along with the urge to spill my guts.”

           “Do you think that we…” Pitch begins, and trails off.

           “Not like that,” Pitchiner says. “Or…well, maybe.” He laughs once. “But not anymore, I think.”

           “I wonder why. Are we no longer…I hate to frame it this way, but, worthy?”

           Pitchiner gives him a funny look. “You want to be worthy of nightmares you don’t even want to talk about?”

           “When you put it that way…but I think you know what I mean.”

           Pitchiner looks across the street and over to the campus again. “I guess I do. I kinda wish I didn’t. But I gotta…I gotta be strong enough, smart enough, whatever, to recognize that it’s not good. If I want to be chosen by something weird and special, I think…I know I can do a lot better than a nightmare. You get what I’m saying?”

           “I…I hope I do,” Pitch says, soft and surprised.

           Pitchiner clears his throat. “Anyway, we don’t really know anything about any of that spooky shit. If it’s backing off, hell, maybe it’s just doing so ‘cause we’re graduating. Makes about as much sense as anything else.”

           Pitch laughs briefly. “Good thing none of us is going into academia, then.” He pauses. “Jon said his goal was to go into archival work, didn’t he?”

           Pitchiner nods.

           “Hmm. You need a graduate degree for that.”

           The spring breeze picks up for a moment, sending some autumn leaves that hadn’t been raked before it snowed scuttling down the street.

           “I think I’m glad that we’re graduating this year,” Pitchiner says.

[sylphidine]

NDU/TMA crossover?

The kind of thing that happens when two of one's fictional fixations merge... one celebrating its tenth anniversary in April 2023, the other launching a much-anticipated sequel later this year.

One starts creating new AUs of AUs in one's head...

... The Magnus PROTO-col.

Calling any and all creators who ever created and continue to create content for Nightmare Dork University and for The Magnus Archives to add your thoughts and ideas.

If there's enough interest, I'm happy to relaunch the 30 Days Of Nightmare Dorks event with a TMA theme.

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

1 April 2020.... NOT A HOAX! NOT A DREAM! 

IT BEGINS.....

Please remember to tag your posts and reblogs as #30daysofndu so that they can be found!

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

UPDATE from mod Sylph, 22 March 2020... 

Some of you have asked for prompts this year for this years edition of 30DaysOfNDU, so I found a list that wasn’t too drippy sickly sweet.  Please feel free to use them if they inspire you.

However, if you wish to just make freeform contributions of art, story, crafts, etc., that’s fine too!

STARTS: WEDNESDAY, 1 APRIL 2020 at 12.01am US Eastern Time

ENDS: THURSDAY, 30 APRIL 2020 at 11:59pm US Eastern Time

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

30 Days Of Nightmare Dorks - 2020 Event Guidelines

The goal of this event is to post as much Nightmare Dork University material as possible each and every day during the month of April, to celebrate seven years of NDU.

This event will run on Tumblr and on Archive Of Our Own this year. 

There is still the Dreamwidth account at https://30daysofnightmaredorks.dreamwidth.org/, but it’s really a bit cumbersome to use. 

Drop mod Sylph an ask or a PM if you are posting on Dreamwidth, Twitter, facebook, etc. and let her know whether she has permission to crosspost your submissions if they did not originate on Tumblr.

The event runs from 12:01AM Eastern US Time on Wednesday, April 1st until 11:59PM EDT on Thursday, April 30th.

Unlike other fandom events, there is not a hard-and-fast prompt list for each day.  There will be suggested prompts which will range from the sublime to the ridiculous, but no one *HAS* to use them. 

Here’s a list of prompts, and then here’s the really silly ones from previous years.

And, of course, if one wishes to play with it, just plug in the NDU characters and others into the Unconventional Courtship Pairing Generator and see what happens.

Also unlike other fandom events, reblogs of previously created material are welcome, but creation of original material is welcome as well.

Inspiration can be drawn from the Wardrobeverse, the collegeverse, the metaverse, and any and all of the associated AUs.

OCs are welcome and encouraged to interact with our NDU boys, as are other RotG/GoC characters.

Don’t feel like you ***must*** post a piece Every… Single… DAY.  Burnout is not fun.  But do try to post at least ONE piece during the month of April 2020.

Be sure to tag your works as #30daysofndu or as #30 days of nightmare dorks in one of the first 5 tags!

Visual, aural, textile, and literary works are allowed - fanart, fanfiction, moodboards, gifs, edits/manips, cosplay, fanmixes, crafts, or ask-and-answer.  

Please tag works accordingly, and be sure to use any warnings for sensitive, taboo, and/or mature subjects.  The Dreamwidth community is a good place to host mature works, and feel free to crosspost there.

HAVE FUN, and support your fellow creators.

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

33 days until the 2020 edition.

Stay tuned.

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

30 Days of Nightmare Dorks - 2021 Edition

30 DAYS OF NIGHTMARE DORKS starts next Thursday!

A little background for those who haven't done it before... this is an extremely laid-back event. 

There are NO prompts, and it's primarily for REBLOGGING your own or others' NDU material.

[If  you do create new material for it, that is wonderful and I will squee loudly.]

But it is an anniversary celebration, first and foremost, of nine years of this brilliant subfandom, and that means NOSTALGIA RULES

So yes, dig through your Tumblr archives and other people's Tumblr archives and DeviantArt and AO3 to reblog lost treasures.

If you can reblog something every day for the 30 Days, more kudos to you. But again, no pressure! And if you do create new works, know that they will be treasured.

Please add the @366daysofnightmaredorks to your reblogs and posts and HAVE FUN!

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

AU Background Info, Part One.

This is going to have a lot of links, kidz and kittenz, so please reblog it to annoy Tumblr’s algorithms.

For those participating in the 30 Days Of Nightmare Dorks event, this is my attempt to give a little background on the varying NDU AUs, since some of the original participants have either left Tumblr or deleted their work.

I am only a humble latecomer to the Wardrobeverse / NDU fandom, and so my observations and notes reflect that.  @mira-eyeteeth has done so much heavy lifting with the establishment and maintenance of @nightmaredorkarchive.

But here’s what information I’ve gathered about the various AUs that have sprung up.  In most cases I have no idea who originated the individual AUs, so any names attached to a particular AU have to do with what I’ve seen as most active creator in it.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT I’VE GOTTEN WRONG, because I’m sure I *have* gotten a lot wrong.  I am working without a time machine here.

==============================

Beatrix Potter AU - based on a series of illustrations by @nxghtlight. The varying Pitches of NDU rendered as very dapper rodents.

Bioshock AU - based on the video game, most active poster @kaza999

Blind!Piki AU - offshoot of the Paint It Black pairing, the ones I’m most familiar with were written by @neyiea

The Brood AU - another one based on illustrations by @nxghtlight. Proto is the sole adult who parents a passel of Pitches.

Dorks of the Opera AU - a version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA where Piki is the Phantom, Jack Sickle is Christine, Pitch is Carlotta, and Pitchiner is known as Pitreneur... he’s a Raoul-type who knew Jack once upon a time, but who is devoted to Pitch, making him more like Philippe

The Dressmaker’s Secret AU - a horror/romance AU originated by Peachsweater [no longer on Tumblr] where Proto, a lonely student, is smitten with Pitch and hurt by Pitch’s pursuit of Pitchiner. Proto finds an antique dressmaker’s dummy and adds limbs and hair to make it look like Pitch. Unknown to him, Pitch had a deceased twin, Piki, who through the machinations of the metaverse Nightmare Kings is sent to animate the dress form and makes it come to life. Most active creators @emeraldembers, @mira-eyeteeth and @nightmareships

Fallout New Vegas AU - based on the video game,  I think this one was mostly @ksclaw

Footlights and Frontispieces AU - future!StageFright, springboarded by @bowlingforgerbils and fleshed out by @sylphidine. Middle-aged Jack Sickle is the author of a children’s book series called ARTHROPOD ABBEY, illustrated by his niece Seraphina Pitchiner. Piki Black is a very successful playwright.  They have a daughter named Emily, and live part of the year in New York City and the other half in Rotsblok Falls upstate.

Genderswap AU - mostly concentrating on the Nightmare Galleon pairing, although there were a few femslash drawings of Piki, Jack, and Proto flying around.

To be continued...

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

30DaysOfNDU Event Guidelines

The goal of this event is to post as much Nightmare Dork University material as possible each and every day during the month of April, to celebrate six years of NDU.

This event will run jointly on Tumblr and over at Dreamwidth on https://30daysofnightmaredorks.dreamwidth.org/

The event runs from 12:01AM Eastern US Time on Monday, April 1st until 11:59PM EDT on Tuesday, April 30th.

Unlike other fandom events, there is not a hard-and-fast prompt list for each day.  There will be suggested prompts which will range from the sublime to the ridiculous, but no one *HAS* to use them.

Also unlike other fandom events, reblogs of previously created material are welcome, but creation of original material is welcome as well.

Inspiration can be drawn from the Wardrobeverse, the collegeverse, the metaverse, and any and all of the associated AUs.

OCs are welcome and encouraged to interact with our NDU boys, as are other RotG/GoC characters.

Don’t feel like you ***must*** post a piece Every... Single... DAY.  Burnout is not fun.  But do try to post at least ONE piece during the month of April 2019.

Be sure to tag your works as #30daysofndu or as #30 days of nightmare dorks in one of the first 5 tags!

Visual, aural, textile, and literary works are allowed - fanart, fanfiction, gifs, edits/manips, cosplay, fanmixes, crafts, or ask-and-answer.  

Please tag works accordingly, and be sure to use any warnings for sensitive, taboo, and/or mature subjects.  The Dreamwidth community is a good place to host mature works, and feel free to crosspost there.

HAVE FUN, and support your fellow creators.