hey besties 😋my laptop updated and emojis now look weird as hell, but i'm not gonna let that stop me from overusing them through the course of this chapter 😁 

this tag is actually an original one of mine, based on a few similar tags i've seen other people do. the idea is that i'm going to go through fics i published but later unpublished (or started but never finished), their plots, and the reasons why i never finished them. i thought it would be fun, especially since i always talk about my old fics anyway. maybe now i'll finally shut up!

also, quick disclaimer: just because i'm no longer writing these plots doesn't mean you can steal any of them. i mean, if you want to write them that bad, then you can ask me, and i'll probably say yes, as long as you give me credit. but taking them without my permission and passing them off as your own? that's a big no-no, folks.

okay, i hope you enjoy <333 let's get onto it!

(and take a drink of water every time i reuse the same faceclaim. you'll probably have to piss when you're finished reading)

ESCAPE ROOM (APPLY FIC)
2019

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

When a group of small YouTubers are approached at a convention with an opportunity to attempt an escape room together, they agree quickly, thinking about the subscribers they'd gain during the collaboration and the new friends they'd make during this adventure.

After meeting up in the hotel, though, they begin to get a little suspicious. The strange woman who offered them this opportunity has not made an appearance, deciding to instead text them cryptic instructions on where the escape room is.

The YouTubers shrug it off, making their way to the escape room, but it seems to have a mind of its own... or some very sick individual is having fun tormenting them.

And remember, this is all being uploaded on YouTube, and you need to give your fans a show!

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Finnegan "Finn" Bronte (He/Him); Played by Wyatt Oleff

Leanne "Lea" Marshall (She/Her); Played by Olivia Rodrigo

Nelly "Nells" Adams (They/Them); Played by Sierra Capri

WHAT HAPPENED:

At the time I posted this (the end of 2019, oh my God), I had literally fifty followers. Acatalepsy was just beginning to grow popular (by which I mean it probably had a couple hundred reads, maybe less lol), but it inflated my ego enough that I thought, "hey, I'll make an apply fic!" 

...No one applied. Also, I had, like, zero ideas of where things were actually going to go, so that didn't help, either. I'd basically just thought up to the summary, and that was it. Obviously, it was a big flop.

LEVEL UP (APPLY FIC)
2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Atlanta is in danger. Only six heroes (read: six flawed teenagers with their own individual issues) are able to save it. But remember: you only get three lives. Then it's game over.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS: 

Elodie Whittaker (She/Her); Played by Isabela Merced/Brie Larson

(Plus characters by applicants)

WHAT HAPPENED:

Take two of the apply fic was actually a success! If, by success, you mean I actually got applicants. Which I did! And more than just the five I needed, believe it or not. 

This time, I actually got a few chapters in before throwing the towel in. This was in part because I found out that a lot of the conspiracies I made Elodie believe in had anti-semitic roots, but also because I simply hadn't actually plotted everything out. I had no idea where the story would go once the characters woke up in the video game (the idea was heavily based on the new Jumanji movies), so I quickly lost motivation to finish. 

Also, I found out I'm not the biggest fan of writing apply fics, since writing other people's characters is a lot harder than writing my own. I was constantly stressing out about getting them wrong, which definitely made it hard to write lmao.

I do think this would have been cool, though! 

BLUE AND GOLD (NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM)
2019-2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Isadora Cogan has been going to Hogwarts since she was eleven, and each time something has gone wrong, it's been connected to the Boy Who Lived. The whole Philosopher's Stone thing in first year? Potter. The Basilisk? Potter. The boy has snaked by with special privileges the rest are never able to get, and she's getting sick of it, and the Gryffindor House as a whole.

Then she bumps into Neville Longbottom, clumsy, shy, awkward, yet brilliant Neville Longbottom, who shows her that the Gryffindor House isn't what it seems, and maybe it isn't so bad after all. And with Dementors, Boggarts, and Hogsmeade trips on the horizon, she's sure going to need a new friend beside her.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Isadora Cogan (She/Her); Played by Sierra Capri

Klaus Casper (He/Him); Played by Louis Hynes

Nadia Martin (She/Her); Played by Mina Sundwall

Mandy Brocklehurst* (She/Her); Played by Zoe Colletti

*I don't own Mandy (she's a canon character from the books), but I did give her a faceclaim, so I guess she counts?

WHAT HAPPENED:

I actually got, like, pretty far into this fic? It was meant to take place from third year to the fifth year, I believe, and I actually finished the third year. I made it all the way to the Yule Ball before giving up, and I don't even remember why. I think it was just getting harder and harder to stay motivated, and the plot wasn't exactly going the way I wanted to. 

Looking back on it, though, it was actually a pretty creative fic—there were a lot of bonus scenes, Nadia's father was a Death Eater, and there was a whole subplot where Isadora was suspicious of Mad-Eye Moody (aka the Death Eater I don't remember the name of) and ended up getting Confunded by him. 

I think this had a lot of potential, even if it was written by fifteen-year-old me, but I am completely out of the Harry Potter fandom now (you can thank JKR for that), and have never considered picking this back up again. It's honestly a shame, though.

SUPERSTITIONS (BEVERLY MARSH + MIKE HANLON)
2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Stella Alicia Ortiz is convinced that breaking a mirror three years ago was the cause of her best friend's disappearance. And August Green may have been a little racist at times and have crushes on bitches like Molly Lavender Zhu, but he was still the only friend she'd ever had.

As a result of August's disappearance, Stella is introduced to Mike Hanlon, the homeschooled boy who is the only one who seems to understand her. Stella thinks it'll finally be a normal summer with her and Mike, with an opportunity to finally be a kid again, but after an unprovoked attack, the two friends are roped into a twisted adventure to kill a clown who's been terrorizing Derry since its foundation.

Well, at least she's making friends, right?

Molly Lavender Zhu thinks she owns Derry. School is easy when you have everyone wrapped around your little finger, and even though you know people call you a bitch behind your back, you wear that name with pride.

Molly Lavender thinks she hates Beverly Marsh-- after all, who wouldn't hate the cigarette-smoking slut who's slept with at least half the school? Even if she is quite pretty, and her smile seems to warm something inside her cold, dead heart.

But after she finds tough-as-nails Beverly Marsh crying outside with bruises on her face, she's forced to rethink everything she's been taught. And it turns out that Molly Lavender might have a heart in there somewhere. Now she just has to use it to kill a stupid clown.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS: 

Stella Ortiz (She/Her); Played by Isabela Merced

Molly Lavender Zhu (She/Her); Played by Ashley Liao

WHAT HAPPENED:

Just another case of losing motivation :(( Though, even when I was writing this, I wasn't as into the IT fandom as I usually am when I write a fic, so that might have been another factor demotivating me. I also didn't really like where the plot was going, and the characters' motivations were off, which definitely played a role as well. Molly Lavender especially—as much as I love her—was acting more like a twenty-year-old than a thirteen-year-old girl, and I didn't understand her thought process at all. She was a strong character in her own right, though, which is more than I can say for Stella.

RIP.

VERDENSROMMET (ROBIN BUCKLEY)
2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Anja Santini has always loved the mysteries of the universe and yearned to discover them. Stardust runs through her veins and she breathes in elements that didn't even exist eons ago. She firmly believes she was born to find out what makes life meaningful, and yet, after eleven years in Norway and six years of living in Hawkins, Indiana, she can't find a thing. It's boring as shit, really, and she longs for the exhilaration of breathing in adventure, which is exactly what tugs her right to Scoops Ahoy with her little sister, Sachi after a Russian communication is apparently intercepted. The problem? Robin Buckley works at Scoops, and she's someone Anja has desperately been trying to avoid.

But there's no time to think about the feelings she's been desperately trying to bury down because Anja and Sachi are soon whisked into an adventure filled with evil Russians, containers of green goo that they probably shouldn't drink, superpowers, and, oh yeah, the end of the world. While trying to protect Sachi, Sachi's friend, and a sassy ten-year-old from this new mess, Anja barely has time to sort through her growing feelings for the girl in the sailor's uniform. But when the world is ending, maybe that shouldn't be her top priority.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS: 

Anja Santini (She/Her); Played by Josefine Frida Pettersen 

Sachi Santini (She/Her); Played by Iris Apatow

WHAT HAPPENED: 

For absolutely no reason, writing Verdensrommet was excruciating from the beginning. It was basically a slog to get through every chapter, even though I was completely pumped for it and really wanted to get it done. I really have no idea why writing it ended up feeling like pulling teeth, but eventually, I just had to cry Uncle. 

I did end up using some of the lines in Ignis Fatuus and Paramnesia, though. So I guess not everything about it was bad.

THE KILLING MOON (STANLEY BARBER)
2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Nelly Minh has a reputation, and not a good one either. Her many strange feats-- like skateboarding down the bleachers and ending up with an arm broken in three places, or graffitiing the school crest with a bizarre quote from a poem, or piercing her ear in the middle of class-- have made her a loner, her only friend being resident pothead Stanley Barber. For a while, Nelly's content with Stan as her friend, until they decide they want to be friends with Sydney Novak.

Nelly, albeit a little reluctantly, tries to go along, welcoming the fiery girl and her popular best friend into her life, but when she sees something she can't explain in the woods after a party, her whole world seems to turn upside-down. To top it all off, she's pretty sure she's catching feelings for Stanley-- who's head-over-heels for Syd.

How are you supposed to deal with puberty, an unrequited crush and a superhero all at the same time, while still struggling to pass your classes?

Nobody prepared her for this part of high school.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Eleanor "Nelly" Minh (She/Her); Played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee

Zoe Minh (She/Her); Played by Lana Condor

WHAT HAPPENED:

Ah, The Killing Moon. The only first-person POV fic I've ever posted on here, and definitely the most relatable (before Revenant, at least). Honestly, I'm sad I never finished this fic. It had a lot of heart, Nelly was the first character I tried to write who also had OCD (though that came in later chapters), and I actually really liked the ideas I came up with. Unfortunately, this fic quickly started losing hype, and, when I was weaker than I am now, I took that as an excuse to completely give up. 

It's been two years, so I know I'm never coming back to The Killing Moon (especially now that IANOWT has been cancelled). Still, it is fun to imagine how I'd write it now. 

THE YOUNG ACTORS SUPPORT GROUP (ORIGINAL)
2020

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

It's safe to say that Vivian Alby, Roman Day, and Lennon Michaels are all famous. With Vivian and Roman starring in Netflix's hit show Stranger Things (with Vivian also in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Roman in IT) and Lennon playing a major character in the upcoming show I Am Not Okay With This, they've got fans all over the globe. And when they're all cast in the same Netflix series, new friendships begin to blossom. Things couldn't be better, right?

But here's the thing: it's not as easy being famous as it might seem. With Roman constantly being pestered every time he hangs out with Noah, Vivian struggling with being known everywhere she goes, and Lennon constantly having to battle against homophobia once she comes out as bisexual, the three of them feel like they only have each other.

Then a startling revelation and a brand new group of best friends turns them to form the Young Actors Support Group, consisting of child actors like them who are starting to realize the disadvantages of having your face plastered on posters and screens all throughout the world. But after a series of events leading up to the premiere of I Am Not Okay With This, the trio have to figure out whether or not fame is really worth it.

Maybe going back to gum commercials would have its perks?

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Vivian Alby (She/Her); Played by Sofia Wylie

Roman Day (He/Him); Played by Chosen Jacobs

Lennon Michaels (She/Her); Played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee

WHAT HAPPENED:

Okay, I know what you're thinking: what? There used to be an original story about the actors behind Alina, Gabe, and my IANOWT OC? Well, the answer was yes, and it stemmed from my love of social media fics (there was a specific Sadie Sink one I'm thinking of, along with the unpublished Pretty Girls Make Graves by antivenoms). I fully believed that this would one day be published, and would hopefully bring Acatalepsy readers over to The Killing Moon.

LOL. LOLLLLLL.

First off... I am not funny. I do not have the certain je ne sais quoi it takes to write a social media story. I mean, there were parts I did like (including the section where Vivian and Roman fight over whether Alina or Gabe is better), but overall... I am no comedian. I'm a certified dumbass who's terrible at writing dialogue, which would suck for a story that it mostly conversations with people.

I don't really remember whether that was the reason I stopped writing this, or if it was because I took down The Killing Moon. Either way, The Young Actors Support Group will forever remain in my drafts. 

NYCTOPHILIA (STRANGER THINGS)
(2020)

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Julie Novak feels like her life is split into two halves: her normal life, in which she goes to Hawkins High for seven hellish hours, plays in a makeshift band with her best friends, and tries to avoid her snarky cousin, Kit; and her less than ordinary one, which is spent beneath the stark white walls of Hawkins National Laboratory, willingly partaking in experiment after experiment as the scientists attempt to research an alternate universe. For three years, she's juggled these halves, and managed to keep them apart; she doesn't breathe a word about the fact that she can hear the signals sent out by a mirror version of her world to her friends or family, and tries to keep the subject of her band or her grades away from Dr. Brenner, who seems to have taken a special interest in her.

And for three years, this has been all fine and dandy. Sure, sometimes it's hard to be constantly lying right to her friend's faces (if she was Pinocchio, her nose would've grown into a tree by now!), weaving tales of made-up internships and chronic migraines, but she makes do. Even when the experiments-- which used to be somewhat harmless-- grow more malicious in type, and Dr. Brenner (who she's trusted since the day he knocked on her door) begins to grow more untrustworthy.

Then, of course, things decide to go wrong. After a failed experiment blows the equivalent to a supernova of noise into her head, Julie's two half-lives combine together in an instant. Now she's on the lookout for missing children and monsters, girls with superpowers and alternate worlds. And she could've dealt with all of that, if not for the fact that she's not alone-- her classmates and bandmembers have decided to join her, tagging along in the search for the truth... the very same truth Julie has always been forbidden to tell.

The problem? Julie doesn't know which side is the right one. Does she follow the lab, who have cared for her since she was thirteen and have, in her parent's absence, felt like her real family? Or does she follow her best friends, who have joined a ragtag crew of preteens (including her cousin!), angsty teenagers, and a pair of adults who definitely don't know what they're doing? Well, she's not sure. And it seems she's coming closer and closer to becoming the villain of the story.

Christopher (Kit!) Novak just wants to make it through seventh grade without having his brains bashed in by Troy Walsh, who has formed a special grudge against him after he spotted Kit kissing his ex-girlfriend, Bella, in the schoolyard. Which sucks, considering the fact that Bella Perez Rivera is Kit's best friend, she was only dating him in an attempt to stop his relentless bullying, and that she was the one who asked him to kiss her ("to make him jealous," she said. Now Kit's head is basically on the chopping block).

Unfortunately, his task of living through his awkward stages and making it to puberty gets even harder when three very persistent boys lead him straight into an adventure right out of a science fiction novel. Now, he's running from the government, harboring a fugitive, and coming face-to-face with monsters from other worlds just because a girl with a shaved head told Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, and Dustin Henderson his name.

And that's another weird thing. For some reason, she thinks he's important. Kit's never been important. He's the kind of guy usually left on the sidelines, the side character in every movie. But now this girl comes along, and she's got like, superpowers, and she's claiming he's special? Kit doesn't really get it.

But with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin somehow convinced that he's gonna be the one to find Will Byers, Kit reluctantly accepts the position of Main Character, launching himself nosedeep into a conspiracy he'd rather ignore. But when he finds out his cousin might be one of the people he's supposed to be running from, he questions whether or not he's up to risking it all for people he barely even knows, and if he could really be the protagonist in his own life.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Julie Novak (She/Her); Played by Taylor Russell

Kit Novak (He/Him); Played by Young! Niles Fitch

Jia Zhu (She/Her); Played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo

Benjamin Song (He/Him); Played by Ki Hong Lee

Bella Perez Rivera (She/Her); Played by Jenna Ortega

WHAT HAPPENED:

I really had no idea where I was going with this story, tbh. I got 30k words into it, had approximately one (1) canon scene (even though this was supposed to be an OC insert canon fic), and forgot what I was going to do. I literally remember planning out the revelation that, like Julie, Kit also had powers... and then I forgot what his powers were supposed to be. Seriously. 

So, yeah, that's a sign for me to actually write things down. Especially since the whole plot kind of hinged on the power thing. LOL. 

Fortunately, Nyctophilia isn't completely gone. A part of Julie lives on in Cecelia Olivier, my OC from Revenant. I thought the idea of an OC working for "the bad guys" (when really they're just being manipulated) was too good to pass up, which is how the plot for Revenant came to mind. Still, this would have been a super cool Stranger Things fic, especially since the entire cast was POC. Stranger Things is white enough already without all the new white OCs being added, lol.

TRAIL OF THE FIREFLIES (THE HUNGER GAMES)
(2021)

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Etta is nine years old when her brother loses his head.

She's in the square, squeezing her mother's hand, training her eyes upon the screens that promise to broadcast the first minutes of the 61st Hunger Games. There's a lump in her throat and a roar of blood in her ears, even though Mama promises that Legend will make it to the end. After all, he's been training his entire life for this, gruelling and sweating and preparing to become a killer, to snap children's necks like they're chicken bones and cut open chest cavities as if they are catacombs to be explored. Etta doesn't like the thought of her sweet older brother taking lives, but everyone around her insists that's what he's meant to do, that it is who he's meant to be.

District 4 is abuzz as the tributes begin to rise out of their tubes. A faint battle cry for the two tributes offered up this year-- Legend Corradetti and Inari Kindall, aged eighteen, with bodies made to execute-- rises up through the crowd. Etta knows most people are betting on Legend, though. His trainers have called him the most promising tribute District Four had ever seen, and he just looks so much like a victor-- dark, luscious hair, sharp jawline, near-permanent smirk. In his week at the Capitol, he's managed to win everyone over, scoring a 10 and wowing Caesar Flickerman during his interview. He has a train of sponsors already lined up for him, eager to sink their money into a bottle of medicine, a loaf of bread, just so that when he wins, they can say that they were there, that they played a part in his victory.

Ten minutes into the Bloodbath, a girl from District Seven decapitates Legend Corradetti in one swing.

Eight years later, the name "Corradetti" still brings a bad taste to most people's mouths. Which is why most people either avoid Etta like the plague or treat her like she was the one who died that day. But Etta is sick of people looking at her and only thinking of her brother. She's determined to climb to the top of the training scoreboards, enter the 69th annual Hunger Games, and earn the crown, reclaiming her legacy and stepping out of her brother's shadow. It should be easy, right?

...Or so she thinks. But it turns out that being a killer takes a special type of predator, and though Etta's got the claws, she doesn't have the teeth nor the stomach for bloodshed. But she knows that, in order to get home, she needs to grow herself some fangs, and quickly. Otherwise, she'll end up just like her brother-- and that's one thing she's desperate not to do.

Etta Corradetti is going to win the 69th Hunger Games. She has to.

She just hopes she doesn't lose all of her humanity on the way there.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Etta Corradetti (She/Her); Played by Madison Reyes

Legend Corradetti (He/Him); Played by Diego Boneta

Atlas Persaud (He/Him); Played by Amir Wilson

Scout Blackthorn (She/Her); Played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee

Wyatt Colferwood (He/Him); Played by Wyatt Oleff

WHAT HAPPENED:

What happened, you ask? What happened is that I'm an idiot.

Act one of Trail of the Fireflies came fine and fucking dandy. It was easy to write; I was literally going off the book. Because the book, you know, already had an established structure, I had an outline for my fic, which made it a breeze to get through.

Then came act two. The actual Hunger Games, which I had to make up. All by myself.

...Yeah I didn't have any plans. All I knew was that the arena would be a pitch-black swamp, Etta would eventually leave the Careers, and she and Flint would fight it out in the end before he broke her legs. All of that stuff in the middle? The filling, if you will, of the fic sandwich?

I had nothing.

I procrastinated so hard on writing this fic that I ended up finishing Paramnesia. Paramnesia, guys, the fic that took me a year to write. So I guess I should be thanking TOTF, in a way?

Whatever. I'm still mad at myself for not finishing it.

BAG OF BONES/FINAL GIRLS (FEAR STREET: 1994)
(2021)

(There were two different variations of this book, so there were two different titles)

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

 March 6th, 1991. Shadyside, Ohio. Lizzie Minh, Tara Carpenter, Julie Chee, and Anna Johnson walk into Heidi's Diner after school. By now, it's become part of their weekly routine—it's close enough to Shadyside Middle that they can walk, and it serves the best strawberry milkshakes they've ever tasted. The owner, Heidi Byrne, greets them, gives them a basket of fries on the house. They sit back in their seats (they take the booth near the window), cast away their jackets, and prepare to unload from the exhausting six hours they've spent at school.

Two hours later, eight people are dead, and Heidi's Diner is washed in their blood. When the police eventually pull up to the scene of the crime, they find Lizzie and Julie cowering in the bathroom, clutching each other as if their lives depend on it. Lizzie's got a slash on her arm, weeping blood, and Julie nurses a similar wound above her eye. When the girls are interrogated on what happened, they tell Sheriff Goode that Tara had abruptly taken up a knife and gone on a killing spree. Before they'd realized what was happening, Anna was dead. Six others—waiters and patrons alike—fell before Tara herself was shot down.

Three years pass as Lizzie and Julie each try to come to terms with what happened in their own way. Lizzie becomes top of her class, volunteers in soup kitchens, and works to leave Shadyside behind for good. Julie deals drugs with Kate Schmidt and Simon Kalivoda and hooks up with both girls and boys at parties. While they both ignore each other, they can still feel that link between them, drawing them back to that day at the diner. And as much as they'd like to forget about what happened, it seems that the past is not quite ready to let go of them yet.

For the massacre at Heidi's Diner isn't the only carnage that has ever occurred in Shadyside. Whether or not you believed in the legend of Sarah Fier, a witch that had cursed the town, you couldn't deny that something about this place was turning normal people into monsters. And when both Lizzie and Julie find themselves evading a storm of long-dead killers, they're forced to get to the bottom of the town's shadowed history... or find themselves as another one of Shadyside's victims.

But as they fight for their lives amongst a bizarre team, both Lizzie and Julie can't help but question whether girls like them are lucky enough to survive twice.

CHARACTERS/FACECLAIMS:

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Minh (She/Her); Played by Lana Condor

Julie Chee (She/Her); Played by Brianne Tju

Jesse Abalos (He/Him); Played by Jacob Batalon

Jackie Chee (She/Her); Played by Haley Tju

Tara Carpenter (She/Her); Played by Millie Bobby Brown

WHAT HAPPENED:

I'M SO MAD AT MYSELF FOR THIS ONE.

I went on vacation last summer, and during the four-hour drive there, with nothing but music to distract me, I came up with this plot. I literally figured out the most minute details, how the story would end (spoilers: one of the girls would die; I'm pretty sure it was Lizzie), the soundtrack, everything. I also had plans for act two (featuring camp counsellor Stevie Watts, played by Zoey Deutch) and three (featuring witch Claudia Lowell, played by Eliza Scanlen). I was ready, you guys.

Then I got on vacation, my laptop broke (for the second time), and I couldn't get past the prologue.

Yeah, I hate myself, too. 

Like Verdensrommet, Final Girls was impossible to write for no reason. And I was proud of this plot, too :((( 

...and with that, we come to the end of the dead fic tag. i hope you enjoyed a glimpse into that disturbing thing i call a brain. i feel like all of these fics had a lot of potential, but, for one reason or another, i decided to let go of them. now, they will forever sit in my drafts, cold and lonely. rest in peace. 

anyway, if you want to do this tag yourself, go ahead!! i tag everyone reading this :)) just please tag me somewhere in the chapter, so i can check it out! i'd love to see the fics that just weren't meant to be :)))

jfc this was too long

alright bye 😁✌️