Hardcore Trash

Here are some additional ideas that you can use as inspiration for each day's themes! You don't need to follow these prompts at all, but feel free to jump off of these ideas.

We didn't provide theme prompts for the Season 5 episode themes - we're leaving those up to you and your imaginations. You can make a fanwork based on s5 speculation for that episode or you can go in another direction with the episode title theme: an au or a play on words or anything else you can think of. The only requirements: make it fun, make it spooky, and try to capture some Halloween magic with your ideas.

Day 1: Sunday, October 26:

RUN!: Will lets out a blood-curdling scream to run - who is he yelling to and what are they running from? Mike and Will race through a corn maze. Will and Mike are haunted by the idea that they'll always have to keep running for their lives.

Creature Feature: Mike and Will tame dragons. What other Dungeons & Dragons-inspired beasts might be lurking in the Upside-Down? Mike and Will as vampires, werewolves, banshees, centaurs, faeries, elves, sirens, merfolk! There’s some kind of monster living in Lover’s Lake (a demo-creature from the black lagoon)! Pieces and parts of Will’s body keep falling off, what the hell? It seems those Zombie Boy taunts came true. Will makes a wish on a bolt of lightning for a boy to love him, and a Victorian-era Michael Wheeler awakens in Hawkins Cemetery.

Day 2: Monday, October 27:

Byers’ House: Mike and Will decide to investigate some strangely haunted goings-on at the Byers House. Will has a message for Mike through the Christmas lights. The Byers’ house gets TP'ed. Mike goes trick or treating at the old Byers' house after the new owners move in and finds something strange there.

Came Back Wrong: After his disappearance to the Upside-Down, everyone is so glad to have things back to normal—everything except Will’s insatiable craving for raw meat. Necromancy, seances, and zombies, oh my! The return to Hawkins after living in California is hitting Will hard - and strangely. Mike's first trip to the Upside Down doesn't affect him like it did everyone else. After the events of season 5, Will doesn’t make it. One night, when Mike is visiting his grave, a hand emerges from the soil…

Day 3: Tuesday, October 28:

Spy: Mike and Will are secret agents assigned to each other, Mr. & Mrs. Smith style. Will starts using his superspy powers to spy on other people. Spying goes too far for Will and he finds himself possessed again. An evil witch casts a curse on Mike the Paladin which forces him to read everyone's minds, and he learns some painful and intriguing secrets.

Somebody’s Watching Me: The Mindflayer looms in the sky and everyone is cracking under the fear. Mike and Will try to sneak their relationship around the surveillance cameras set up by Hawkins Lab or the military. After committing a crime, Mike and/or Will has to establish a perfect alibi. Mike is horrified to learn that Holly or Karen has been looking through his stuff. El spies and accidentally catches Mike and Will kissing on Halloween.

Day 4: Wednesday, October 29:

Hellfire: The Hellfire Club is up and running at Hawkins High, and Will has joined. What D&D campaign will the party be doing this Halloween? Will and Mike face the fires of hell as they venture into the underworld. Will gains control of his powers and casts fireball!

Witching Hour: Late at night, all manner of witches and devils emerge and create mischief in the darkness. Mike and Will stay up too late during a sleepover and find themselves in the fight of their lives. While living at the Wheelers’ house, Will begins sleepwalking in the dead of night. Will tries casting a spell in a D&D session, and it seems to work in real life. Mike and/or Will start getting nightmares.

Day 5: Thursday, October 30:

Radiowaves: Mike and Will are separated one October night and keep in touch over their walkie talkies. Mike and Will get to host the Halloween radio show at the WSQK station. Mike and Will are long distance one Halloween in college but reconnect over Cerebro. On Halloween night, Mike and Will intercept a creepy voice on the radio. On Halloween night, Mike requests the perfect song be played on the radio for the one who got away, Will.

Sci Fi Terrors: Time travel, space missions, robots, science experiments gone wrong. The Demogorgons are aliens, and the Upside-Down is another planet!

Day 6: Friday, October 31:

Trick or Treat, Freak (2x02): Revisiting our beloved Halloween episode. Let's join our boys for trick or treating in 1984. 3 Musketeers, Max joining the party, and the Mind Flayer looms in the sky. Crazy together?

Ghost: Mike and Will’s first apartment is haunted and they have to get rid of the spirit. Young Will makes a friend while swinging on the playground… who died over 10 years ago. Mike is haunted by his childhood friend who vanished one November night, never to be seen again. At a sleepover, Mike and Will’s accidentally summon a ghost.

Day 7: Saturday, November 1:

California Screamin’: How did Will's Halloween in California go between s3 and s4? What if Mike had visited for Halloween? What if the Byers stayed in California? A presence from Lenora Hills followed the Surfer Boy van back to Hawkins and is now haunting the party. The boys run into trouble in Hollywood. Mike and Will go to Disneyland! Wait, is it haunted??

Whodunnit?: The Party is invited to a Murder Mystery party! But when guests start dying one by one, it’s starting to look like someone is a little too committed to the theme. Someone stole all Reece's Pieces from the communal party trick or treating haul - who is guilty? Detectives Mike and Will put their heads together to crack the latest case.

Day 8: Sunday, November 2:

Satanic Panic: At a sleepover one night, the Party experiment with a Ouija board but accidentally conjure a spirit that is hungry for blood… A rumor spreads around Hawkins that the Hellfire Club is preparing for the arrival of the antichrist, AKA Will Byers. Mike and/or Will is a fallen angel. Mike and/or Will find themselves tangled up in a Satanic cult.