Wednesday: Tales from the Dark Side

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Hi! I’m brumeier, and this week we’re filling TV-related themes. So don’t touch that dial! Today’s theme is Tales from the Dark Side. This was a compilation series of scary stories, so prompts and fills should be related to horror, campy or otherwise, or just the darker side of things in general – fusions with scary shows, hurt/comfort, characters turning dark, or ghost stories just to name a few!

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and fandom's full name for ease adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
If there are possible triggers in your story, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get the ball rolling...
+ Prodigal Son, Any, The Haunting (1963)

+ Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes (+/ Sam Wilson), seeing a scary movie at the drive-in

+ Stargate Multiverse, Any, sometimes to save lives you have to make morally dubious decisions

+ X-Files, Fox Mulder +/ Dana Scully, the monster of the week is of the human variety

We use AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2016 collection. See further notes on this new option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? Check out Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 1 (not very current), Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 2, or the Calendar Archives, or for more recent prompts, you can use LJ's advanced search options to find prompts to request and/or fill.

While the Lonely Prompts Spreadsheets and LJ's advanced search options are available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching for in the future.

tag=Tales from the Darkside

Comments

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Any, The Haunting (1963)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes (+/ Sam Wilson), seeing a scary movie at the drive-in

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Stargate Multiverse, Any, sometimes to save lives you have to make morally dubious decisions

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

X-Files, Fox Mulder +/ Dana Scully, the monster of the week is of the human variety

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard,

I don’t need no arms around me
I don’t need no drugs to calm me
I have seen the writing on the wall
Don’t think I need anything at all
(Pink Floyd)

Fill: TW minor suicidal ideation, plus minor Lorne, post-Holland

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

John stood in the hangar bay, staring up at the bird that used to be his. It could still be his, if he ducked his head and groveled. He knew how to play the game. He’d made it to major when all his previous commanding officers had thought he’d never make it past captain.

But Holland was dead.

Mitch and Dex were dead.

Nancy was long gone, and -

And what?

Why was John still here, in this uniform? Why was he still here in this godforsaken desert, fighting this pointless war, for a whole bunch of people who didn’t give a damn, who’d as soon spit in his face and call him a baby killer when he finally touched down in the place he was supposed to call home?

To hell with them in their comfortable beds with their boring lives.

Every time he closed his eyes he was back on the desert sands, watching the sun rise, Holland’s cold body in his arms, sticky blood on his hands.

John had long passed the twenty-four hour mark when guy had license to drink and scream and cry over a buddy who’d bought the farm. He’d spent those twenty-four hours in the brig while JAG officers hissed at each other just beyond the bars about what to do with him.

He hadn’t disobeyed a direct order. There’d been no orders about the situation at all. He was in a kind of legal black hole.

Holland was in a literal black hole.

A pine box with a flag draped over it, headed stateside.

John was a genius, had passed the test for MENSA. There were possibilities. If he took a chopper up high and abandoned the controls at the last second, jumped -

Because the base outbuildings and not even the hangar were really high enough to guarantee a really final answer if he -

No. What the hell was the thinking?

He scrubbed a hand over his face.

Booze?

No. Not strong enough.

Drugs? No. That’d get him grounded, and what he wanted was to fly.

Girls?

Hell no. Girls were just too much damn trouble.

“Shep.”

John turned.

Lorne was standing beside him. “You want a cookie?”

John looked him up and down. “You don’t have any cookies.”

Lorne heaved a giant gunny sack of flour into his arms. “Gimme an hour and I’ll have a couple dozen. March.”

“I’m a major, same as you,” John said, a little disoriented.

“March,” Lorne said again, and John obeyed.

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Let the Right One In (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Right_One_In_(film)) fusion (feel free to age them)

Fill 1/3: TW for bullying, cursing, violence, and murder

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Superman is the best, said the voice on Rodney’s walkie-talkie.

Rodney scowled at his bedroom wall, knowing that John was on the other side of it.

“It’s sad how wrong you are,” he replied. He didn’t let up on the talk button because John didn’t deserve a chance to make his case. “Batman is obviously the best superhero. He doesn’t have any super powers, just his intelligence and a knack for building weapons.”

He’s a billionaire playboy playing vigilante. Which is stupid.

“You’re stupid.”

Real mature, Rodney.

John had a lot of flaws, there was no question about that, but he was also the only friend Rodney had. The other kids at his school picked on him mercilessly, because he was smarter than everyone else – including the teachers – and never hesitated to correct someone when they were being stupidly wrong. Plus, he wasn’t particularly athletic.

John, who had moved into the apartment next door, liked Rodney. For reasons which continued to remain elusive. He was a year younger than Rodney, but didn’t go to school. In fact, Rodney had never seen John outside during the daytime.

Rodney had his suspicions. He was a genius, after all, and an avid consumer of comic books. He’d read his fair share of Blade comics.

You going to bed?

“I guess. See you tomorrow?”

I’ll be here. Rogue One, signing off.

“Rogue Leader, signing off.”

Rodney put the walkie talkie on his nightstand and turned off the light. He wondered what John did all night, with no-one else to talk to. Was he out stalking the streets? Playing Atari? Plotting world domination?

He fell asleep imagining John in a long cape, his cowlicks all slicked back and shiny.

Rodney had to get himself to school the next morning. His dad was unreliable, as always, though he’d left some money on the kitchen counter so Rodney could get lunch. The money got tucked away inside his sock, to try and save it from the bullies.

School was stupid, like it always was. Rodney did the classwork in record time, then decamped to the library to study the college-level textbooks they kept in there. It should’ve been a safe haven from Marshall Ells and his cronies, but no such place existed at school.

“Hey, nerd.”

Marshall pulled out the chair next to Rodney, flipped it around, and plopped down in it with his arms crossed over the back. His brother Dillon did the same on the other side, boxing Rodney in. Rodney kept his gaze firmly fixed on the physics textbook and tried to pretend they weren’t there.

“You got one last chance to save your life, McJerk,” Marshall said, leaning close enough that Rodney could smell his sour breath. “You’re gonna do my whole Chemistry workbook so I don’t flunk out.”

Marshall flunking out of school was the best-case scenario as far as Rodney was concerned.

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, there's a looping hallway in his mind palace where his darkest fears dwell

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Astro, Cha Eunwoo + any, There's someone in my head / But it's not me (Brain Damage by Pink Floyd)

Fill 1/2: OT6 gen high school AU Sense8 fusion, TW bullying, violence, pervy teachers

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

“I am in your head,” Bin said, “but you’re not crazy, because I’m real.”

It had taken Dongmin a long time to come to grips with the fact that there were not one but five other voices in his head - and that he wasn’t crazy.

Unfortunately, the adjustment period had taken its toll, and he’d gone from being his school’s golden boy to being the crazy one, and some of the other students had seen his fall from grace as a chance to play out their petty revenge fantasies from years of pent-up jealousy.

Dongmin sat curled up in a corner of an empty classroom, panting from where one of the boys on the judo team had nearly choked him unconscious.

“Okay fine,” he said to thin air - and the five boys assembled around him. It was easier to picture them with him than just hear them in his head. They were real people and he felt less crazy when he focused on that.

“What should I do?”

Jinwoo had the sensible suggestion that Dongmin pass off his recent adjustment to being part of a sensate cluster as a bad reaction to stress and use it as an excuse to scale back his studies a bit, relax more, have more fun. Now that he had adjusted, he could get back to normal.

“He has to deal with the bullies, though,” Bin said.

“Let me kick their asses,” Minhyuk said. He had his fourth degree black belt in taekwondo.

Dongmin was a little afraid of him even though he also knew Minhyuk was a mama’s boy and liked to make beaded jewelry and slept with a stuffed wolf.

They all knew too damn much about each other.

“I’ll get into trouble if I get into a fight,” Dongmin said.

Myungjun smiled. “Only if you get caught.”

Dongmin said, “The school has an extensive CCTV system.”

Sanha did that weird thing where he crossed his arms and interlaced his fingers to stretch them. “Leave that to me.”

It was Myungjun, who had extensive experience pulling pranks, who shoulder-surfed one of the bullies in the computer lab to get his computer login information.

Myungjun also did most of the set-up for the attack. He picked a spot that had only a couple of CCTV cameras and every couple of days he nudged them just a little till he’d created a blind spot. He used a similar method to create another blind spot in a computer lab.

And then Sanha set to work, using the bully’s login information to post all kinds of horrible and untrue rumors not only about Dongmin but about teachers who favored him.

“Why teachers?” Dongmin asked.

“The school administration will be more motivated to deal with the rumors if it’s to also protect their staff,” Jinwoo said wisely.

“Why those teachers but not those teachers?” Dongmin asked, peering at the faculty list. He’d stepped back and let Sanha take over his body to do the computer work.

Bin clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Haven’t you noticed? These teachers make you run errands all the time even though you’re not in their homerooms.”

“I am a class president though,” Dongmin said.

Bin stared at him. Jinwoo stared at him. Myungjun stared at him. Minhyuk stared at him.

Sanha said, “I would also metaphorically stare at you but I’m busy right now.”

“What?” Dongmin asked.

“They ask you to run errands so they can look at your face,” Bin said.

Dongmin frowned. “You’re just saying that because you’re an ulzzang.”

“They’re perving on you,” Myungjun said.

“They’re not,” Dongmin said.

Minhyuk looked at him.

Dongmin swallowed hard. “Are they?”

Jinwoo said to Sanha, “Type faster.”

Sanha made an affirmative sound.

Jinwoo turned to Minhyuk. “You ready?”

“Always,” Minhyuk said.

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, introducing each other to their favorite scary movies

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Any, any, 'til death do us part

Fill: Astro, Avatar Last Airbender fusion, gen, maybe preslash?

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

“Are you ever afraid?” Sanha asked.

“Why?” Minhyuk asked.

“Because,” Sanha said. “You know. You’re not a bender.”

They were clustered around a campfire, the six of them. Myungjun had started it with a casual flick of his power. Minhyuk, as the team cook, had made supper. Jinwoo, tired from the day’s insanity - a battle against Fire Nation troops who didn’t care that Myungjun had once been their prince; fleeing from a sea serpent; angry villagers who hated all benders - was curled up beside Bomi, Sanha’s air bison, already asleep.

“Plenty of people aren’t benders. They don’t go through life afraid.” Minhyuk stirred the pot of chicken with his massive cooking chopsticks.

Bin had made a ball out of some of the water from his canteen and was drifting it back and forth idly, watching how it bent the moonlight filtering between the clouds from above. As soon as the food was ready he’d be up and at attention.

“But you’re the Avatar’s special guard.” Sanha darted a glance at Dongmin, who was sitting beside Bin and meditating. “You’re constantly in danger because you have to be beside him.”

“So?” Minhyuk said.

“Everyone wants to kill him.”

“Do you want to kill him?”

“Well not us.”

“Don’t you wish someone else were his guard?” Sanha asked. “Or don’t you wish you were a bender too? What kind of bender do you think you’d be?”

Minhyuk reached down and toyed with the red string bracelet around his wrist. “No,” he said. “I don’t wish someone else were his guard. And I don’t wish I were a bender. But if I were a bender, I’d be like Jinwoo. An Earth Bender. Because I’m reliable. Like a rock. You can call me Rocky.”

Sanha stared at him for a moment. “You’re not funny.”

Minhyuk grinned. “Say it with me. Rocky swag.”

“Hyung, no.”

“C’mon. Rocky swag.”

Sanha swatted at him. “Go away. Finish cooking.”

Minhyuk laughed and set about finishing the meal. Once it was done, he summoned the others, served them food. He set aside a portion for Jinwoo even though it wouldn’t taste very good cold, and he brought a bowl to Dongmin.

“Do you wish someone else were my guard?” Dongmin asked quietly.

Minhyuk reached out and tapped the blue string bracelet around Dongmin’s wrist. “You know we’re connected by the Old Man Under the Moon himself, by the strings of fate. The balance of nature demands that for the Avatar, the guard be a non-bender. We will be together till death parts us. And we will be reborn together. Always.”

“Maybe next time,” Dongmin said quietly, “you can be the bender.”

“As long as I’m with you,” Minhyuk said, “but I don’t want next time to come too soon.”

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

Any actual horror fandom, any/ensemble, it turns out the ghost/monster/etc. was just a crooked real estate agent in a mask

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

Any, any, the last person that anyone expected to go dark

Fill: Chronicles of Narnia, Susan Pevensie

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Whenever the others talked about Narnia, Susan always laughed airily.

“Oh, that pretend world we played in when we were children? With the talking animals.”

And she resumed putting on her lipstick and doing up her hair.

But she remembered Narnia. Had dreams about it.

Nightmares about it.

Walking across battlefields in her queen’s armor, smelling dried blood, swatting away flies as they buzzed over the corpses of centaurs and fauns.

The others said they heard Narnia calling, and they were going to help.

Not Susan.

The others had railed against being thrown back into childhood, forced to live as insignificant adolescents again.

Susan was glad to live in a world where she had no responsibilities, where she didn’t have the weight of kingdoms on her shoulders, where all she had to worry about was school and clothes and whether a boy liked her.

If the others were going back to Narnia, she was staying.

But it didn’t work that way.

One moment she was checking her reflection in the mirror, the next -

She’d never been to this wood before, but she knew what it was, had heard The Professor and Polly Plummer speak of it before. The Wood Between Worlds. Magic would take her to Narnia or any number of other worlds.

Except how would she get there? She had no magic rings.

Only she’d always worn these two rings, hadn’t she? Relics of her time as Queen Susan.

She walked till she found a pool that seemed like a safe bet, like Earth, like home, put on the proper ring, and jumped.

But this wasn’t London as she knew it.

This wasn’t Narnia, either. But she’d heard of this place. This place was supposed to be dead. This was Charn, the homeworld of Jadis, the Witch Queen, the Ice Queen.

Susan had walked through cemeteries, across battlefields more alive than this. Charn had paved roads, stone monuments to make Athens and Giza weep with jealousy, towering and elegant and wonderful and utterly lifeless.

She found the hall with the thrones of statues - save the one empty throne.

There were multiple gongs on the altar in front of the raised throne dais. Susan studied them. She ought not to have been able to read them, but magic was strange that way. Finally, she picked up one of the little leather hammers, and struck.

The sound reverberated through Susan’s bones and everything in the throne hall, stirring the dust off the floor and shaking tiny rocks loose from the walls.

It grew and grew and grew until Susan could hear nothing else, until there was nothing but sound, and then it was as if there was no sound at all, as if a new silence had been made.

Susan turned and ascended the dais, settled herself on the empty throne.

The sound faded in a slow decrescendo, but the air had a different quality to it. It was no longer lifeless.

And then the army filled the throne hall, row upon row of glittering armored troops arrayed with weapons and magic perhaps not even Aslan could have imagined.

Susan thought of all the times Peter and Edmund and even Lucy and Jill and Eustace had scorned her for being silly, thought of all the war-torn countries and worlds she’d seen, and she was tired.

And she thought, I can do better.

The leader of the troops knelt at her feet, golden helm bowed. “What is your bidding, my queen?”

Susan smiled.

[daria234.livejournal.com]

Hannibal, Will/Hannibal, what Will would do if Hannibal were secretly locked away in Will's basement

[daria234.livejournal.com]

Teen Wolf, Isaac/any male or Stiles/any male, he likes the darkness and the fear

[daria234.livejournal.com]

The Boys, Homelander/Hughie or Homelander/Butcher or Butcher/Hughie, he hates that he's attracted to the danger

[daria234.livejournal.com]

Buffy, Willow/Faith, going bad together

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Hawaii Five-0, Any,

Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
(Imagine Dragons)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Sherlock (BBC), Sherlock Holmes +/ John Watson, if Watson had been the one to fake his death

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Any, Any,

You hear the beating of your heart
You know the screaming's gonna start
Here comes the really scary part
'Cause it's terror time again
(Skycycle)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

MI-5|Spooks, Lucas North, It's like I'm paranoid looking over my back (Papercut - Linkin Park)

Fill:

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Lucas was convinced someone was following him and had been for the last few days. He’d tried all the usual tricks, slipping off the tube train just before it started again, so his follower didn’t have time to leave, looking at the reflections in shop windows, but he hadn’t caught sight of anyone yet.

No-one else on the team had said anything, and they were all alert to the possibility of being followed, so he wasn’t prepared to mention his fears in case they took it as further evidence of his instability.

Yet every time he stepped out of a building, he sensed there was someone just waiting for him, ready to pounce the moment he slipped up.

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Astro, Lee Dongmin|Cha Eunwoo +/ Park Minhyuk|Rocky, Bad boy, good boy (modified from Bad Girl by Miss A)

Fill: a weird, darker Good Omens fusion?

[sherlockian-syn.livejournal.com]

Dongmin checked his phone to make sure he hadn’t misread Minhyuk’s text message. But as he read the words again, he knew he was in the right place, at the right time. Minhyuk was purposefully keeping him waiting, probably watching from the shadows for signs of discomfort to creep into Dongmin’s body.

Instead, Dongmin stood up straighter. Adjusted his tie. Smoothed the front of his impeccable ivory jacket. Broadened his posture, as if he were flexing his angel wings with confidence. Unfortunately, he was in public, so they remained invisible to the naked eye. But he wanted Minhyuk to know he wouldn’t be intimidated.

Not by the red, hazy sky. Not by the ash falling through the air. Not by the ominous name of this particular bridge. (It was Burnside Bridge, in Portland, Oregon. Minhyuk always loved meeting up in America.)

And he would certainly not be intimidated by the demon that went by the name Park Minhyuk.

“Dongmin.” Minhyuk’s voice was quiet and even, his gaze focused on the Portland skyline. Suddenly appearing out of nowhere had always been his favorite way to make an entrance.

“You’re late,” Dongmin replied curtly.

“You’re early.”

“Look, no more games.” Dongmin turned toward Minhyuk, tried not to be distracted by the dark pinstripe suit, gray tie, and sunglasses, but he stopped short when Minhyuk looked at him.

Dongmin knew what was hidden behind those sunglasses - eyes filled with fire and brimstone.

“This is the end, Dongmin. The games are over now.”

“What do you mean?” Dongmin asked.

“I mean that this isn’t a parley. We are no longer diplomats, trying to reason with one another. There’s nothing left to discuss. It’s ending.”

“Nothing to discuss? What makes you think my side is just going to take this lying down? I’m not going to let you walk all over me, like you’ve done for centuries -”

Minhyuk grabbed his arm, and Dongmin stared at the point of contact, because he couldn’t remember the last time Minhyuk had touched him, if ever.

“Dongminnie -”

“Don’t. Call me that.” Dongmin’s voice cracked.

“Please look at me.”

Dongmin looked up just as Minhyuk slipped off his sunglasses. He could see the flames dancing in Minkhyuk’s impossibly black pupils.

“I didn’t come here to gloat. This isn’t victory. It’s just...done. Can’t you see? The world’s on fire.”

Dongmin scoffed. “Literally, yes, the western coast of America is on fire right now, but -”

“You know what I mean, Dongminnie.”

Dongmin did know. Not that he would ever admit that to Minhyuk’s face.

“So what is this, then?”

Minhyuk tilted his head, a sarcastic smirk on his face now.

“It’s goodbye.”

Then the demon kissed the angel, and the world should have ended right then and there, but instead it kept burning.

As they parted, Dongmin swore he saw wisps of smoke gently floating upward.

“Goodbye then,” Dongmin whispered. He felt as if his body was going to disintegrate and mix with the ash already on the ground. But he also felt weightless, like he could close his eyes, and then there would be nothing at all. Just an empty place where an angel used to stand.

Minhyuk started to walk away, but stopped again after only taking a few steps.

“I’ll be somewhere in the dark, Lee Dongmin. Come find me.”

Dongmin hesitated, felt the feathers of his wings twinge, but he turned around despite himself.

“I will.”

But Minhyuk was gone.

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne, You can call me monster (Monster - EXO)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

BBC Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, You got me feeling like a psycho (Psycho - Red Velvet)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

The Untamed, Wei Wuxian,

Crawling in my skin
These wounds, they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

(Crawling - Linkin Park)

I love TftDS! This daily theme is the best!

[templefugate.livejournal.com]

Any, any, You better run, better run / Outrun my gun / You better run, better run / Faster than my bullet (Foster the People)