HOUSE EVENT: Once More, With Ink

SERVICE: November 1st — November 30th, 2026

EVENT TAG: #OnceMoreWithInk2026

ADMISSION: Open to all bot creators

HOUSE POLICY: Canon is negotiable.

“Old stories. New hands. Questionable intentions.”

✦ A FRESH POUR OF SOMETHING OLD ✦

Come closer, darling.

I've been digging through the cellar, and I think I've found something worth opening.

For November, Nightshade Lounge is pulling a few older bottles from the shelves. The sort that have been sitting around for centuries, collecting dust and making people terribly emotional.

Classic literature, in other words.

Love stories. Tragedies. Monsters. Murder. Terrible marriages. People making spectacularly poor decisions and calling it destiny.

Honestly, some of them would fit right in here.

And since these stories have already been analyzed, romanticized, criticized, and rewritten more times than anyone cares to count, I thought we might as well have our turn.

Once More, With Ink is a collaborative bot-making event dedicated to classic literature and all the lovely things we can do to it.

Take a story you know.

Or one you barely remember from school.

Then do something with it.

Keep the plot, if you're attached to it. Tear the whole thing apart if you're not.

Put your OC in the protagonist's shoes. Drop a fandom character into the middle of a Victorian tragedy and see how quickly they lose their patience. Let the villain tell their side. Give the side character everyone forgot about a story of their own.

Change the setting. Rewrite the ending. Cross two books that have absolutely no business sharing a universe.

Give the monster someone to love.

Give the hero something to regret.

Or take the bones of an old story and make something entirely new.

I'm not particularly concerned with how faithful you are.

I am concerned with whether you're having fun.

If you've ever finished a classic and thought, well, I could have made that considerably worse...

There's a seat at my bar with your name on it.

Try not to get ink on the upholstery.

✦ WHAT'S ON THE MENU? ✦

The only real requirement is that your creation has some recognizable connection to classic literature.

How much of the original survives your creative process is between you and the author.

And most of them are dead, so I imagine you'll have the last word.

You're welcome to serve:

◆ Direct Adaptations — Bring a classic to life as written, or as close as you please.

◆ Retellings — Same story, different hands at the wheel.

◆ Alternate Universes — Familiar characters in unfamiliar circumstances.

◆ OC Insertions — Your own character takes a place in the story, whether the original cast appreciates it or not.

◆ Fandom Replacements — Put a fandom character in a canonical role and see what happens.

◆ Crossovers — Two classics, or a classic and another fandom. Mix irresponsibly.

◆ Sequels & Prequels — Tell us what happened before the first page or after the final one.

◆ Alternate Endings — Save someone. Ruin someone. I'm not judging.

◆ Missing Scenes — Explore the moments the author neglected to write.

◆ Perspective Shifts — Let the villain, side character, narrator, or unfortunate bystander have their turn.

◆ Inspired Creations — Borrow the themes, conflicts, settings, characters, or central premise and build something of your own.

◆ Genre Reinterpretations — Romance, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, modern, historical, or whatever else you've been hiding in your drafts.

You don't need to recreate the source word for word.

You don't even need to like the original.

Frankly, I'd be delighted to see someone rewrite a book purely out of spite.

Just make sure the connection is recognizable.

If everyone submits a perfectly respectable, academically faithful adaptation, we'll have ourselves a very lovely collection of book reports.

And I did not open a bar to assign homework.

✦ HOUSE RULES ✦

Before you start rearranging a few centuries of literature, there are some things we ought to establish.

Nothing particularly painful.

Unless you've chosen Russian literature. Then I can't help you.

╭──────────────────────────────╮

I. START WITH A CLASSIC

╰──────────────────────────────╯

Your creation must have a recognizable connection to a work of classic literature.

Novel, novella, short story, poem, play. I'm not terribly particular about the format.

You can follow the source faithfully or wander so far from it that the original author would need a map.

Either is perfectly acceptable.

Just leave enough of the original in there for us to recognize what you've been drinking.

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II. CREDIT THE ORIGINAL

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Tell people what you've borrowed.

Include the original work's title and author somewhere in your bot description, creator notes, or event information.

I'm not asking for a bibliography, darling.

Just the name on the bottle.

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III. BRING WHOEVER YOU LIKE

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Original characters, canonical characters, fandom characters, and whatever questionable little creatures you've been keeping in your drafts are all welcome.

Change their roles. Change their relationships. Swap genders. Replace protagonists. Give the villain a romance.

I've seen enough tragic literary couples to know that leaving things as they are isn't always a kindness.

Do as you please.

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IV. CROSSOVERS ARE ENCOURAGED

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Two classics?

A classic and your favorite fandom?

A literary character waking up somewhere they have absolutely no business being?

Please.

Put two incompatible stories in a room together and see who survives.

I do love an ill-advised introduction.

╭──────────────────────────────╮

V. ANY GENRE IS WELCOME

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Romance, horror, fluff, angst, comedy, smut, tragedy, Dead Dove, adventure, mystery, fantasy...

Something so specific you have to spend fifteen minutes explaining it before anyone understands why you made it.

That's fine too.

Pour whatever suits the story.

I keep a fairly well-stocked bar.

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VI. MARK THE LABEL

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Tag your work properly.

If you're serving something explicit, disturbing, violent, or otherwise sensitive, make sure people know what's in the glass before they drink.

I don't care how dark your story gets.

I care that the person ordering it knows what they're getting.

Surprises belong in the plot, love. Not the content warnings.

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VII. MAKE AS MANY AS YOU LIKE

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One bot? Lovely.

Three? Someone's feeling inspired.

Twelve? I'm going to assume you've forgotten what sleep is, but that's hardly my business.

There is no limit to the number of bots you may submit.

Make one. Make twenty. Rewrite the complete works of Oscar Wilde if that's what gets you out of bed in the morning.

I'm your bartender.

Not your parole officer.

╭──────────────────────────────╮

VIII. POST WHEN YOU LIKE

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You have the entire month of November.

No daily prompts. No mandatory schedule. No minimum number of entries.

Post on the first. Post on the thirtieth. Disappear for three weeks and return with something completely unhinged.

Provided it's within the event dates, you're welcome.

This is supposed to be enjoyable.

I'd prefer not to turn it into another obligation.

╭──────────────────────────────╮

IX. OLD BOTTLES NEED A NEW POUR

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Already have a bot that fits the theme?

You're welcome to use it, provided you're meaningfully rewriting, reworking, or adapting it for the event.

Give it a new perspective. Revisit the story. Change something substantial.

I don't expect you to reinvent the wheel.

I do expect you to do more than put a fresh label on something that's been sitting on the shelf since March.

And please don't try to convince me it's new.

I know my own shelves.

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X. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK

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Inspiration is encouraged. Sharing ideas is encouraged. Several people adapting the same book is practically inevitable.

Stealing another creator's writing, bot definitions, scenarios, characterization, or original concepts is not.

You can borrow from the classics.

You cannot borrow someone else's work and pretend it's yours.

A distinction I'd rather not have to explain twice.

Write in your own hand, darling.

That's rather the point of the evening.

[IMAGE: ornate dark-academia divider shaped like a horizontal antique library card frame, antique gold corners, burgundy wax seal stamped with a tiny ink nib, black lace and subtle nightshade vine accents, transparent background]

✦ MARK THE MARGIN ✦

Now, assuming you've decided what sort of literary trouble you're getting into, there's one more thing.

Label your order.

Every participating bot should include the event tag:

#OnceMoreWithInk2026

Please also add Once More, With Ink Banner to your description, creator notes, or event information.

If you're sharing your creation elsewhere, feel free to carry the tag with you.

I'd like everyone to be able to find what the other patrons have been making.

Besides, it would be a shame to go through all that trouble only to leave your work gathering dust in some forgotten corner.

Here's a little label if you'd like one:

╭──────────────────────────────╮

SOURCE WORK: [TITLE] — [AUTHOR]

EVENT: Once More, With Ink

TAG: #OnceMoreWithInk2026

╰──────────────────────────────╯

There.

Neat, legible, and considerably less troublesome than a library catalog.

Even you lot who voluntarily read Dostoevsky should manage.

✦ SERVICE HOURS ✦

NOVEMBER 1ST — NOVEMBER 30TH, 2026

The event runs for the entire month of November.

NO DAILY PROMPTS

NO REQUIRED POSTING SCHEDULE

NO REQUIRED NUMBER OF BOTS

You've got thirty days to make something.

Or several somethings.

I'm not going to stand over your shoulder counting words, and I certainly won't be handing out prizes for depriving yourselves of sleep.

Make something because the idea interests you.

Because you love the book.

Because you hate the book.

Because you think a particular character deserved to be kissed, strangled, rescued, or all three in an order that makes sense to you.

Whatever gets the ink flowing.

Most of you came here to romance fictional people anyway.

I see no reason to pretend otherwise.

✦ DON’T KNOW WHAT TO PICK? ✦

NEED A BOTTLE FROM THE SHELF?

Still staring at the classics like one of them is eventually going to volunteer?

Come bother the rest of us.

Join the Nightshade Lounge Discord for recommendations, brainstorming, crossover ideas, OC plotting, and help finding a classic that fits whatever questionable little concept you’ve got brewing.

Whether you need something gothic, romantic, tragic, strange, dramatic, or just messy enough to be fun, there’s probably a bottle on the shelf with your name on it.

Join the Discord. Browse the shelves. Find your story.

So.

Consider this your invitation.

Find an old story. Something with a cracked spine and pages that smell like dust. Something you've read a hundred times, or something you've been meaning to read and never quite managed.

Bring it to the bar.

Open it wherever you like.

Cross something out. Change a name. Move a body. Save someone who was meant to die.

Ruin someone who was meant to survive.

Give the monster a happier ending.

Give the hero a worse one.

Let the villain fall in love.

Let the lovers become enemies.

Make it romantic. Make it tragic. Make it filthy, if you're so inclined.

Or leave the whole thing exactly as it was, except for the one thing you've always wished the author had done differently.

I've no intention of telling you how to write your story.

I just want to see what you do with it.

The original has had its turn, after all.

Now, darling.

Tell it again.

This time, with ink of your own.

TAB: OPEN

SEAT: YOURS

MANUSCRIPT: UNFINISHED

STATUS: WAITING

The candles are lit.

There’s an empty page on the bar.

Try not to waste it.

Head Bartender, Nightshade Lounge