[Please read the instructions before jumping in!]

Vivian Dormer woke up in the darkness and was, briefly, confused about where she was and why she felt so awful.

An annoying arrhythmic ticking was happening somewhere to her left, an uneven patter that made her waking even less comprehensible. She raised a hand to scrub her face, then sighed as her surroundings slowly became familiar again.

She was in her new room, in her new apartment, in a new city—a place her aunt had rented for her and practically forced Viv to move to. It was across Canada, a good eight-hour flight from her home in B.C., but was a much shorter distance to travel with careful use of gates in the Otherworld, sending her from one Valley to another.

It was that trip which had made Viv so sick that she’d barely eaten for days, only getting up to take care of the cats and shove a piece of bread or two into her mouth before stumbling back to bed. She hated having to spend time in the Otherworld—it always did this to her, like she’d never really got acclimatized to it no matter how long she was forced to spend in it. The magic she supposedly had in her body reacted to the Otherworld, but some sort of…allergy did too. She couldn’t go too far from a gate or the active magic in her body would start to quell, something that would also make her sick. But she couldn’t go all the way into the Otherworld easily either without the magic in her body staging a complete revolt.

She basically had no choice but to live in a Valley. The Uncanny Valleys were the rifts that had been torn into the human world when the gates to the Otherworld had opened a couple of decades earlier. Not quite human territory and not quite monster territory, it was considered an ideal place for witches and other monster-adjacent humans to live—although, of course, they were also heavily occupied by humans and monsters alike. The one she’d lived in near Vancouver had been just fine for her, familiar and comfortable, until…

Viv considered going back to sleep, rolling over with a groan to face the window.

She should have known better than to date within her aunt’s coven. She was already treated more like a novelty than a proper witch, some sort of scientific curiosity to the others. The magical veins in her body failed to work right, and only her aunt’s word to the others that the magic did live in Viv gave her any clout. Viv knew it was there too, could feel it inside her, knew it was what kept making her sick. But the only thing she could do with it was minor divination, fortune telling to help herself guide her actions or foretell the weather or things like that. Simple tricks, half of them wrong or, perhaps, changed through the actions she took after doing the foretelling.

No matter how many spells she memorized, the language of them seemed to escape her. Like a mundane human with no monster blood, the spells just didn’t want to be spells for her. She’d doubted herself a dozen times, despite feeling the magic inside her; her parents were mundane, even if her aunt was a witch—couldn’t she be too? But her aunt had insisted that Viv join her, and Viv couldn’t say no. And, since she had to be in the coven anyway, she’d tried to make the best of it.

Sure, dating had been nice, but having a messy break-up with one of the covenmates? It had practically caused a faction split.

So here she was, in Branwin’s Valley. On her own, in a city she hadn’t picked, in an apartment she hadn’t picked, in a room she still wasn’t familiar with, boxes literally everywhere since she’d been too sick to unpack.

But… she was feeling better finally, she had to admit. The effects of the Otherworld had passed, and she was just hungry now, and with an awful caffeine headache. Viv sat up, rubbing her head with a grumble, scrunching her hair between her fingers. With everything still packed, maybe she should order something in? Or maybe it’d be better after so long stuck inside to go out, find a coffee shop, start to get used to the area. She needed to do something to get herself fed ASAP, anyway.

The patter started up again, this time accompanied by a chittering meow next to the bed from one of the cats—Beano, from the sound of his relatively deep voice. So the sound was a bug trapped behind the curtain, huh?

Viv hauled herself out of bed, straightening her fox-patterned pajamas, and nudged Beano out of the way of the curtain. She reached in behind it—and closed her hand directly around the bug, with perfect aim.

Holding it loosely, careful of the flutter of wings in her hand, Viv pulled it to her. Peeking down at it, she saw an absolutely enormous moth huddled in the curve of her hand. She froze, a little grossed-out but mostly afraid to do damage to it by holding it too tightly.

But it just stayed where it was, little legs on her hand, seeming to look up at her between the gaps in her fingers.

“Better get you outside,” she muttered. The balcony would do.

Beano let out a plaintive meow, pawing at her leg. He’d been hunting it, she recalled; he’d want her to give it to him instead. 

[Please suggest an action in the Comments.
As a reminder, it can be thoughts, words, or deeds,
and can directly relate to what just happened
or be more indirect requests for info!

(Please have your comments in by 4 pm PST Oct 2)]

[Next Day: Day Two]

It’s that ‘choose your own adventure’ time of year again! My yearly Halloween Interactive Fiction begins tomorrow. It’s gonna be spooky, gonna be queer, and gonna be driven by you!

Here’s how it works:
Tomorrow (Oct 1) I’ll put up the introduction to a story that should set the stage. Then, you leave a comment to the post with a suggestion for what the character should do next! You’re an invisible audience shouting things at the screen–but the things you’re yelling will help influence the character’s actions. Examples of what suggestions might look like: “Examine the mirror” or “break the vase” or “Don’t give up!! Think about your family!” Get your comments in by no later than 4pm PST the next day. Then, between approximately 5pm-9pm PST, I will put up the next part of the story. A new post will go up every day until Halloween! To be alerted when the post’s gone up, make sure to add your email to the “Subscribe to blog” form in the sidebar.

(If contradictory actions are suggested by different people (“Break the vase” and “take the vase with you”, for example), I’ll decide based on what’s suggested more and/or more in line with the protagonist’s established personality. In general, you can suggest whatever you want, even if it isn’t relevant. For example, “what do you look like, though?” could be a suggestion just as much as anything else—feel free to use your comment to learn more about the character(s) as well as advance the story.)

I need you!
This structure only works if people participate, so don’t be shy or worry that your contributions wouldn’t be useful. It’s open to all and I’m looking forward to everyone’s comments! Even if you’re repeating someone else’s suggestion, that just makes it more likely for that thing to happen. You should only comment on the most recent post that’s up at any given time, but don’t feel like you have to be there from the start to play, just make sure you’re caught up on what’s happened so far.  If you want to dip your toes in and read a little about how this works first, feel free to check out the previous Halloween I.F. games I’ve run.

Let’s get started – your first comments!:
Comment to this post with some character names! I will try to use them within the story.

As well, I’m still finalizing the story I want to write, so if there’s anything you want to see, let me know! That’s vague, and you don’t have to answer this part if you don’t want, but if there’s something you’re hoping for — more of something I did in a previous year, less of it, a particular sort of mood/tone, let me know! Some examples could be: “scary for halloween” or “don’t scare the pants off me” or “give me a flamboyant spellcaster” or “just please no more nerds”.

This story is likely to be primarily f/f (I mean, depending on how you steer it; protagonist is likely going to be bi), with soft cryptid girlfriends and uncanny monsters, ladies and gents and enbies alike. It’s going to be set in the same world as Uncanny Valley, 2017’s story, but you don’t need to have read it before this, all premise will be in the story itself. The mood will likely be a little spooky, a little unearthly (though this may vary if anyone has a strong ask).

(The small text: I reserve all rights to this work. If I eventually get this published in any form that requires me to take this version down, I will send copies of this online version, with comments left intact, to everyone who contributed suggestions, if I am reasonably able to get in contact with them.)

♥ Meredith

[Completed parts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15 | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 | Day 19 | Day 20 | Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 | Day 25 | Day 26 | Day 27 | Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 | Epilogue | Author’s Notes/Story Q&A]