#NIGHTMARE FACTORY

[bettyfrommars]

Welcome Back to The Nightmare Factory

Steve's Version Part 1: When the Night Comes

m a s t e r l i s t

Blurb 1

Nightmare!Steve x fem!Reader

word count: 2.2k

18+ONLY, lurking monsters, night terrors, star-crossed lovers

Author's Note: Hi, I've missed you. Until now, we've only explored this world with Nightmare!Eddie, but it's time to throw Steve into the mix. Different reader, of course, and I plan to jump around to random scenes as this progresses; it shall not be a linear experience. Nightmare Steve is a biker Steve hybrid that will often cross over into the world of Hawkeye that I created for my biker!Steve au.

Also, you do not need to have any knowledge of the original Nightmare Factory or biker Steve to enjoy this xoxox

You didn’t know how long you’d been waiting on the bench under the bus stop awning, but the sun was sinking on the horizon and the air vibrated with the promise of rain.  A drizzle dotted a few fine pinpricks on the sidewalk, yet you could feel a damp chill seeping in through your bones as if you were already soaked.  

Across the street between monochrome, saltbox roof houses, stood an old brick building.  A flickering neon sign out front had the outline of a purple hand on it, palm out announcing Psychic Readings in a mustard yellow that rivaled the melting sun beyond. 

You looked down at your wristwatch, only to realize you weren’t wearing one, and then checked up and down the empty street. Just when the thought occurred to you that there were no other humans around, the flutter of a curtain in one of the houses across the way caught your eye.

Maybe the buses stopped running at dusk and you’d missed the last one.  But then, how would you get…to wherever you were going? 

“It’s never on time,” a voice next to you spoke up, making you jump.

You were certain that there had not been anyone sitting on the bench with you a second ago.

“The bus, it’s never on time,” she repeated. The woman had short, dark blonde hair tucked behind her ears, a spray of freckles across her nose, and a restless smile tugging up the side of her mouth. “There is always a lot of traffic at the factory on Fridays.”

“The factory?” You cocked your head, trying to understand. 

The last offering of fuchsia in the sky flickered and was gone in a blink, erupting a sudden fear in your gut at the loss of light. The fresh blanket of cold made your toes cramp, as if they’d met with one of those icy pockets in sunless, concrete corners.  

The woman kept the side of her face to you at all times, never turning to look at you straight on.  You had this crazy notion that perhaps the other side of her didn’t exist.  

The sight of a motorcycle approaching warmed your heart and your guts for some reason, and you hoped that the bus was not far behind.  The rider inched to a halt at the curb in front of you, stomping one booted foot down to steady himself, engine grumbling.  In the amber glow of the single streetlamp, you were able to get a look at him.

Wearing sunglasses at night, he raked a big hand through his head of thick, unruly hair, and reached up to light the smoke that was held between his lips.  The lighter’s flame let you see the square line of his jaw and that the tattooed lettering on the knuckles of one hand spelled LOVE.  He wore leather and denim, with a red shirt, and he tipped his chin to you before turning to the other woman on the bench. 

Behind him, the neon psychic sign blinked furiously as the bus in question crawled into view.

”Thank you for keeping an eye on her,” Steve said to the other one on the bench, exhaling smoke out the side of his mouth. 

“Of course,” she stood to button her coat.  “Beers are on you this Friday.”

“Remind Eddie if you see him, I might be running late again.” He hadn’t gestured to you, but somehow you knew that you would be the one to make him run late.

The bus rattled closer; it was filled with blue light and odd, dark shapes.

“Are you ready?” The man on the motorcycle tossed the smoke to the pavement and extended his hand to you.  “Jump on.”

You got to your feet and hesitated, trying to figure out where you knew him from.  

“But I’m waiting for—-”

At that, the air brakes on the lumbering passenger vehicle hissed, coming to a stop, and a cloud of fog billowed up around it.

“You were waiting for me,” Steve tipped his chin at you. "I made a promise."

At another glance, you saw through the windows that it was crowded in figures wearing black shrouds, shuffling forward at the sight of you.  They were moaning with unspecified longing that somehow translated into the creepiest sound you’d ever heard.  Gasping, you took his hand, and he pulled you close, urging you on the seat behind him.  

“I got you,” he whispered.

On the bench, Robin filed her fingernails with an emery board, blowing a pink bubble with her gum like she hadn’t a care in the world.  

You held onto Steve’s leather jacket to swing your leg over the bike, zipping your torso flush to his warm back.

Behind Robin stood an endless sea of the same shrouded creatures, clustered dead still in the night as if being actively born from it.  Some had antlers, some had hunched backs, and others were impossibly tall and thin. Lining up front to back and shoulder to shoulder, appearing out of seemingly nowhere, collectively withering one long, low growl.  

You hugged him frightfully close, squeezing your eyes shut to bury your face in the back of his neck.  He smelled like warm summer rain, damp earth, campfire smoke, and a zest of vanilla spices.  Safe, I'm safe.

He revved the throttle and told you to hang on tight, but you wavered, checking to find that the army of faceless ghouls were right there—they’d been yards away, but now they were within arm's reach, hovering.

But then you were in the wind, head forced back by the velocity, choking on a scream, whimpering unintelligible pleas into the leather of his jacket.

He shifted gears and it felt like you’d entered some type of warp speed, engine humming between your legs.  Eyes shut tight, you swore you felt sharp swipes of skeleton hands at your back and heard the shrieking wails of defeat as the masses lumbered to catch up.

The flap of enormous wings sounded as a few took to the sky, but Steve shifted again, lowering his head.  “Don’t look,” he begged.  “Soon they won't be able to touch us.”

Back at the bus stop, the door to the bus squealed open, and Robin did not look up from picking a piece of skin from her cuticle.  

“Good luck with the next one, Dickie,” she said to the driver who hulked in his seat like Mothman, one clawed hand clutching the wheel.

Dickie looked from Robin to the road ahead and back a few times, trying to understand what was happening, before sinking his wings with a sigh.

“Do you need a ride, sugar?” His voice was usually deep and bellowing on the job, but just then it came out in a comically high-pitched southern accent.  

—---

The first time you met Steve, he’d been waiting in the corner of your bedroom.  

Waiting for you to go to sleep.

But you were up late watching Ewoks: The Battle for Endor on the small, VCR combo TV that was perched on your dresser.  The violet crescents under your eyes hinted to the lack of sleep you’d been getting the past few months.  You’d been having a bad rash of nightmares, and if you didn't know any better, you’d think you'd been specifically targeted somehow.  

This was not the first time you’d unknowingly had a movie night with shadow Steve, but it was the first time you’d felt his presence.  He was nothing but a dust mote of a glimmer, but still, you stared right at him, and asked if anyone was there.

Had he made a sound? Had he accidentally snickered a bit too loud at the giddy Ewoks? Or were you starting to sense him though the cosmic barrier that kept you in different worlds?

It made his heart stall for a second, mouth agape, and a hand outstretched, ready to come clean.  To let you know that he wasn’t just some creep off the street, that he was just doing his job—but of course you couldn’t see him.  If he ever got the chance to explain it all to you, he’d let you know that the two of you were on different channels of reality.  Like switching stations on a radio, he could tune into you, but you didn’t know how to tune into him.  

So, there was no way that you could…

“Back again I see,” you hummed, turning to face the screen from where you sat propped up against the headboard in your pajamas.  “Where will you be hovering tonight? On the ceiling or at the foot of the bed?” 

Were you talking to him? As far as he could tell, you were the only two in the room.  

“I’m not afraid of you,” you whispered, defiantly.  

Did you really mean it, or were you trying to convince yourself?

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” but even as he stepped forward, he knew the effort was fruitless.  

The sound of a barely audible whisper made you turn the volume on the tv down.

Okay, before you’d been bluffing, but that time you really heard something.  

Flinging the covers off to jump out of bed, you spun around, wielding the remote out in front of you like a weapon.

“Who’s there?”

Nothing.  No one. Just you and all of the nightmares you’d been having about paralysis demons pinning you down and sucking out your soul.

A horrifying thought occurred to you then that maybe they’d followed you out of your dreams and into the waking world.  

You tossed the remote back onto your bed, spinning around to address the room.  “If you have something to say to me, do it now.  Don’t be a fucking coward and wait till I'm asleep.”

Your declaration was met with nothing but the garbled conversations on the TV.

It took a while for you to finally get to sleep, but once you did, that’s when the rattling on your closet door started.  It was just a few scratches at first, coming from the inside, but then the doorknob wiggled.

Steve stepped out of the corner and walked—nay, floated.---around to the other side of your bed to act as a barrier between you and whatever was coming out of the closet.  The beeping on his watch told him you were entering a deep sleep; he’d also draped an invisibility layer down just in case you did happen to wake up during the confrontation.

The closet door creaked, opening an inch, just enough for three long and meaty, hairy fingers to curl into sight.

“Wrong room, genius,” Steve said curtly.

The door propped ajar just enough so that one big, milk white eyeball could peer out.  “Steve?” A garbled voice whispered.  “I thought you were at the abandoned hospital with Hopper tonight?”

“I was,” Steve answered.  “But now I’m here, asking you not to bother with this one.”

The big eye twitched, blinking a few long blinks.  “Whatever you say, dude. I’ve got better places to be.”

Whispers tickled at your ears, as if someone was having a conversation nearby, but not close enough to fully comprehend the words.  

You heard the name Steve.

So then you muttered it outloud: “Steve?”

Shocked, he spun around, staring at your parted lips.  But then a snore escaped from the back of your throat, and he eased back.  

“I won’t let them bother you,” was what he said, and you believed him.  Whatever that meant.

��-----

The motorcycle began to slow, and you took the opportunity to check behind you, slumping with relief to find that the highway was empty.  Lined with evergreens on either side, the road shot straight out behind the two of you into ominous, smoky oblivion, as if there had never been a town or a Psychic sign or a bus stop.  

Steve knew he was cutting it close, his time with you would be over soon, but he wanted to take you out and show you something cool, maybe even impress you.  He’d told you about the crimson-colored lake before, about how you could see Mermaids and all manner of sea creatures.  It didn’t make sense that they were all in a lake, but still, there it was.

“Have you ever seen a mermaid in real life before?” He asked over his shoulder, shouting above the wind.  

You hadn’t, not that you were aware of, anyway. Everything felt so real, it hadn’t even occurred to you that perhaps you weren’t even in the real world.  

“Well, don’t talk to them, and don’t look at them for very long,” he warned.  “They’ll bite your face off as easily as wink at you.”

You nodded, taking in that information.

“I want to show you where—-”

But then the road dropped off at an abrupt cliff edge that appeared to jut straight down into a sea of stars.  It was like a reflection of the sky above.

“Shit, I’m so sorry—” Steve yelled as the bike caught air.

You were going down, falling into the ether of nothingness, and you couldn't tell if the blood-curdling scream you heard belonged to you or someone else.

You clung to Steve while you plummeted down through the infinite space of some unknown universe, about to crash and burn. 

Was this it? Is this how you die? 

In bed, your eyes flew open with a jolt, clutching a pillow to your chest like you might’ve once held onto a boy for dear life.  The pillow smelled like warm summer rain, campfire smoke, and vanilla spices.

After a few blinks, you realized that was the first time you’d slept all through the night without being forced awake by terrors in a very long while.  

-----

Thank you for reading, and much love to those of you who have enjoyed this world from the start. Now that I'm writing again, I'm working on a very special chapter for Nightmare Eddie as well that I can't wait to share with you.

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Image ID: Two glitter texts, reading as "NIGHTMARE FACTORY – DEVLOG 0". End image ID.

Hi, I'm Garça Visconde Mirigis, and I'm VERY happy to announce that this post you're reading is the first devlog ever for my nightmare game, a 3D platformer parody of mascot horror genre! And yes, nightmare, not dream game, because making my actual dream game is way out of my current abilities at the moment!

Ever thought to yourself how different a horror game would be if our protagonist decided to help the monsters instead of... [reading a list off-screen] killing, imprisioning, sacrificing, exorcizing or even banning them to other dimensions? Because I have, for ungodly amounts of time, and after literally years I decided that the time to actually make this thing has come. Welcome to the NIGHTMARE FACTORY!

OKAY BUT WHAT IS THE SYNOPSIS?

As previously mentioned, NIGHTMARE FACTORY is a parody of mascot horror games, set in an abandoned toy factory that also used to host a theme park. You play as Vera Torres, a 57 year-old mechanic who used to work in there. One day, our dear Vera receives a call from an old coworker: The higher-ups are going to sell the factory and the theme park, but they need a good inspection, and no one is accepting the offer! Feeling a bit nostalgic and wanting to help her friend, Vera decided to help take a look inside...

... Only to discover the place is now filled with strange monsters whose leader has, somehow, decided that she's actually his mother?! But she only had one kid ever in her life...?

Yeah, Vera is CONFUSED, and it's now your duty as the player to help her figure out just what the heck is going on!

... AND WHAT THE HECK IS THE GAME ACTUALLY ABOUT?

The game is a lighthearted and pink look at mascot horror as a whole, featuring little references to other games and lots and lots of silly jokes. It is also a long love letter for the genre, because as much as I like poking fun at FNaF, it did change my life for the better and it will forever have a soft spot in my heart. I love the franchise despite it all, and making a whole game just to poke fun at it and other similar games feels stupid. No one can create a good parody if they don't love the thing they're parodying even a tiny little bit.

NIGHTMARE FACTORY is not an "aha look at how stupid this is" look at mascot horror. I want it to be as sincere as possible, and the end product needs to be honest and not ironic in the slightest in order for it to be a success.

HOWEEEVEEEER. Despite the silliness, NIGHTMARE FACTORY can and will feature grapphic imagery and disturbing content due to its nature as a horror title. Trigger and content warnings have not been currently set, but shall be added as development continues.

WHAT ARE THE ~ INSPIRATIONS ~ ?

HEHEHE. HAHAHHAA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MY FAVORITE PART!

The gameplay is inspired by the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy, Pac-Man World 1-2 and Rayman 2! These are my favorite platformers ever and I played them for hours as a kid, and since NIGHTMARE FACTORY is all about toys and childhood I figured it would be the perfect fit!

For themes and story, NIGHTMARE FACTORY is inspired by Five Nights at Freddy's, Bendy and the Ink Machine/Bendy and the Dark Revival, Tattletail, Poppy Playtime, Silent Hill 1-4, Welcome Home, My Friendly Neighborhood and the Lacey series on YouTube! Some of the themes include loss of childhood, the horrors of motherhood and girlhood, corporate corruption, trauma recovery, grief and rage.

For visuals, however? Alice: Madness Returns, Hello Kitty Roller Rescue, Strawberry Shortcake: The Sweet Dreams Game, Disney Princess' Enchanted Journey and old dress-up flash games are my references!

THE SETTING

The game is set in 2020s São Paulo, Brazil, AKA where I live, and it can and will feature elements of brazilian culture. The final version should have both english and brazilian-portuguese translations, with cultural notes being featured to help non-brazilians understand some jokes and themes better.

CURRENT SITUATION

NIGHTMARE FACTORY is currently sitting at "the single gamedev is desperate to start programming but he's busy with uni work" stage of production, but do not worry, the single gamedev is also working on the story, how level progression shall go, how the game should feel to play, and, of course, planning the mechanics, AKA the most important part of a fun game. I'll make an entire devlog detailing every single main mechanic as soon as I'm able to finally start fully working on this!

NIGHTMARE FACTORY is being made with Godot, Blender and Krita, and it will be released first for PC.

NOW A LOOK AT HOW THE SINGLE GAMEDEV IS ALREADY ANXIOUS ABOUT MAKING THE GAME

It wouldn't be a project I made without me losing my mind about it from day 0!

Nightmare Factory is a 3D platformer game, with around ~30 levels planned, divided into 5 acts/chapters/arcs/sessions. You can think as these sets of levels as Crash Bandicoot's Warped level selection, like this!

After answering some asks relating to mascot horror as a genre, I remembered a conversation I had with my amazing partner some weeks ago about how I want to release NIGHTMARE FACTORY. YES, I didn't even start programming it, but this is the type of thing I need to settle on before I build a good chunk of the game. It will be important!

But then. There's the problem: I don't like it when games are "released" but you have to pay more to get all of them. Yeah, each chapter would be super cheap so they would have a full game price when combined, but also. Do I want to do this. Do I genuinely want to do this. Like? Am I sure this is the right way to do it?????

Image ID: Screenshot of Crash Warped for the PS1, with Crash standing in front of a warp room with 5 blue buttons on the floor, each marked with a number from 1 to 5. The 6th button has the face of Tiny Tiger, signaling it to be the entrance to a boss fight level. End image id.

My first plan was to release each act separately so I could both get feedback and also have more fun, because by getting feedback I would be way less worried about messing things up + I could update things like character physics to be less wonky or more stiff in case it was a common complaint, which could change the entire level design. And also because I'm a clown and I want to make a mascot horror parody, and releasing it in chapters aligns perfectly with how I want this to go.

Anyways, this has now lead to me deciding that the game should be a "pay for it once" type of thing. I'll still release it in chapters, but the updates will be for free. Will I regret this decision because liking it or not I need money + I am an indie dev + there's nothing wrong with game devs expecting to be, y'know, PAID for their work? Absolutely so!!!!! But I think that, for now, this will be how I develop this silly game.

Anyways, this is getting long enough, so I'll finish it for now. Character introductions will be made after the gameplay-focused devlog, so see you guys soon enough! Byeeee <3

[buttercreamery]

I'm feeling nostalgic for all the webtoons I abandoned after 9th grade

[lilicannotfly]

Ohhh my stars if you have read Death:Rescheduled mutual me please !!!

and if you read Nightmare Factory when it existed, marry me /hj

[omnybus]

making shitposts, making shitposts is so fine

[petrichormariposa]

Halloween’s coming around the corner so i wanted to see what the companions would be like going to a haunted house maze together 🎃

[blueflipflops]

Reblog for bigger sample size!

[chazraps]

Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times featured my (Chaz Kangas) piece on this weekend's Wrestlemania and I thought I'd also share my full uncut conversation with Cody Rhodes. Cody and I discussed his return to WWE, what John Cena said to him at the top of the ramp on Monday Night Raw, his serendipitous Road to Wrestlemania against Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman, learning acting from Howard Fine and the book of Uta Hagen, his father's legacy and appearance in Minnesota's Mayslasks Bar in the 1974 Verne Gagne film 'The Wrestler,' his entrance music's different versions by Downstait and Snoop Dogg and more!

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-03-30/wrestlemania-goes-hollywood-by-going-very-very-real

[nebulanightsky]

More Uncorrupted Nightmare and Lux

However this is just a bonus from my last post of uncorrupted nightmare doodles :'D

[icedlava1]

I wanted to draw grown men getting scared lol

OG pictures:

[dailykafka]

— December 28, 1911 / Franz Kafka diaries

[bettyfrommars]

Omg betty i just saw a tik tok of a scare actor getting his mask pulled up and the girl just made out with him!!!! I lt was so freakin hot. I immediatley thought of nightmare Eddie. Idk how it would happen in that world but im fucken begggggggingggggggggggg. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Hi darling!

I'm not sure if this is the same TikTok, but I think so, and that sweetheart @munson-blurbs did a cute story based on it here 🧡

Imagine your friend, nightmare reader, happens to be in the same dream as you, and you're both running from some type of monster or killer, and then, reader just turns around and starts making out with it because its Eddie.

The next day you'll be like, "you were in my dream last night and this guy was trying to kill us, but then you started kissing him and it looked like you were really enjoying it. It was so bizarre."

Reader will be like 👀 oops, you weren't supposed to remember that.

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

My greatest fears regarding Nightmare Factory are writing innacurate and/or harmful representation, first and foremost, but also having cishet men poking fun at it or being condescending because its a girly game.

[ganglygamer]

LN3 fanartists in need of refs COME EAT YOUR SLOP-

Monster Baby (Necropolis):

Ventriloquist/Ringleader (Fun Fair)(Principal from LN2 is currently being used a close comparison to what he may look like in-game):

Spider Secretary/Supervisor (Factory):

Workers (Factory):

Mirror Man (???):

[peachi-blossom]

Non-Hazbin Hotel characters that are better than Lucifer Morningstar

I hate Lucifer Morningstar. Why do fans find him attractive? He looks like a skinny twig like every male character Vivienne Medrano draws. Except for Adam! I think.

I added Wreck-Gar, Cheese Sandwich, Banana Man, Probabilitor the Annoying, and Blumfump because they're voiced by Weird Al.

Speaking of Weird Al, Vivienne Medrano wanted him to voice Lucifer since she's a big fan of him, but he didn't because he's a Christian (which I didn't know that until this July).

EDIT: 7/9/24

I should've put Mortimer in the better than Alastor post because he uses Voodoo for evil purposes, but I forgot. Oh well.

I replaced Mortimer Handee with Bonechill from Super Paper Mario because he is inspired by Lucifer.

[spitefulscreenwriter]

Sometimes I feel like a tim burton character, melancholic but whimsical. Dark and grotesque but yet soft and naive. Misunderstood, longing for a place to fit in.