As I write this, even now I am too late. Everyone else is dead. The one I thought was my friend is nothing more than an enemy of humanity. The creatures pound away at my door. The room is strange: things move as soon as I look away, others disappear, and every second I swear the walls close in as though to suffocate me. The demons have already found their way into my mind; it is only a matter of time before I am utterly lost to madness. Ah, if only I could go back and stop myself. Why must humanity play with the plug socket of the universe? Cursed am I, soon to join the other lost souls who dared to dream, and who conjured nightmares.

My last will and testament be this: that the horrors of the season be tamed by yet another doomed prompt writing challenge. With my last strength, I call upon the dead to rise up and hopefully right the wrongs of the living. Once, I would have deplored this as utter foolishness, but I am past caring now.

Besides, what's the worst that can happen with thread necromanc-

Gotcha, you slippery jerk! Oh hello, readers. Guess what? As soon as you finish reading this, I'm coming for YOU next. Hope your locks are up-to-date! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

For this one month of the year, I'm reviving the old prompts and giving them a second shot. Call it creative recycling, if you will. Or laziness. Either works for me.

All you have to do is pick one you like the look of, and then write a story according to that prompt's rules before the end of this month. (N.B. Prompt rules outlined below, most of them simplified for convenience). You can tackle as many prompts and write as many stories as you wish. They're all listed below.

I'm ignoring the Big Prompt simply because it doesn't expire until December 31st, so there's no particular need to call attention to it. Besides, I might save that for December itself.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, mortals. Your story needs to have some Hallowe'en or horror theme to it. Yes, even the wretched romance one. We leave this entirely to your discretion: have a horror backstory, set it during Nightmare Night, stick a ghost in there, make it scary but monster-free, anything.

So basically pick a prompt, read its rule(s), and inject it with the horror virus. Because if you don't, then the nicest thing I'll do to you will be DESTROYING YOUR SOUL.

See ya real soon, mortals! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!

This one provides a selection of sub-prompts, all listed below. Simply put, you take two characters (one of which HAS to be relevant to our group) and give them one of the following scenarios:

- X and Y are dating when Z confesses their love. How do they handle it?
- "I'm sick of Hearts and Hooves day! I'm going to make my own day instead!"
- Someone has stolen Hearts and Hooves day! Clearly this calls for a rollicking adventure to get it back.
- X has a crush on Y. But what happens when they don't understand each other's romantic customs?

Choose a character who has fewer than ten stories and give them a complete story before the month is out. I'm eschewing the ten-day requirement for the sake of flexibility, but the completeness requirement is non-negotiable.

Pick a TAGC-relevant character from our list of candidates, which is basically any character with fewer than one hundred stories. An army is on the march, and somehow the TAGC-relevant character is involved. I leave it entirely up to you to determine how they're involved.

One that didn't get much attention at the time, but hopefully might get a second wind. Basically, you must pick two characters from our list. One of them plays the "angel" i.e. the good, sensible one. One of them plays the "fool" i.e. the crazy or strange or idiotic one.

Same as it was last month, so this one should be fresh on your minds, but I'll summarize it anyway: pick two characters listed under Side Characters, one of whom must be a TAGC-relevant character.

While the "Imposing Sovereigns" challenge is itself finished, the Second-Born version is technically still ongoing, and it has fallen off the radar, hence its special mention here. The prompt is this: pick someone to be a princess, then choose one of the roles outlined in the original blog post, and complete a fic before the end of the month. The full list of roles is below:

• Warriors: Princesses Who Fought Their Own Battles
• Usurpers: Princesses Who Grabbed Power in a Man's World
• Schemers: Princesses Who Plotted and Planned
• Survivors: Princesses Who Made Controversial and Questionable Choices
• Partiers: Princesses Who Loved to Live it Up
• Floozies: Princesses Notorious for Their Sexy Exploits
• Madwomen: Princesses Who Were Likely Mad, or Close to It.

6137027

Honestly, so long as there are more entries this time than last time, I'll be happy. And since there were two entries last time, this shouldn't be a hard bar to clear. At least, I hope so.

Also, yes. Brace yourself for the influx; that movie's going to bring with it a tidal wave of fics.

6137480
6137027
It seems like this has been a year of big contests with prize support. I wonder if we could drum up some interest by bribing, er, incentivizing folks...

6140864

An interesting idea with potential for real payoffs, but I'm reluctant to actually follow through with it myself, and for two reasons.

One: I think user visibility/popularity was a big factor in those contests, if not the scope of some of the concepts themselves. Much as I'm fond of this group, I doubt it'd get anywhere near that kind of attention before the end of the year. I think it would need a sizeable following before such a thing could be attempted.

Two: someone else would have to do it. I have a personal policy of not getting involved financially on this site. Frankly, I neither want nor need that kind of complication. Or, for that matter, that kind of distraction.

Apologies for the late reply, by the way. Ironically, I got distracted by other things I was dealing with.