#while not relying on just plain shock value like i feel so many horror authors default to

[formalmess]

i'm curious now. what is the darkest fic you have written

hmm.... well, only issue there is that i've compiled a list of 22+ fics i've written that could compete for the title, so i can't tell you one for certain. and of course, that answer might change depending on what element of darkness/horror scares you the most.

(INCOMING: long musings and thoughts abt darkness and horror in fics below, plus references and direct dialogue from GRAPHIC, unhappy, angsty stories. if reading about mario characters in distress makes you sad, please don't read. please, oh please, proceed with caution if you keep reading...)

i think something about horror that is so interesting is how differently some people approach it.

does gore squick you out the most? how about manipulation? psychological torment? jumpscares? horrifying implications? betrayal? alien lifeforms? body horror? there are so many facets to horror, and something one person might find fascinating, another might find appalling, and vice versa.

it's also what i think makes horror so compelling to explore in a fictional setting: emphasizing our inherent human fears into something fantastical and horrific, something to make us squirm in our seats.

for example, in everyday life, we might feel betrayed if a friend talks behind our back, but what happens if we amplify those feelings tenfold? as such, i've written a sum of stories that primarily center around manipulation, psychological torment, and the aftermath of betrayal. for me, i've always found those stories the scariest, whether in my writing or in popular media.

"How could you let this happen?" Luigi's words came first upon the realization, screaming as though someone else were in control of his voice. Hot tears streamed down his face, the anguished man wailing and sobbing, feeling nothing but the overwhelming need to hurt someone: to somehow find a way to make someone pay and avenge the mistake that had been made. "ANSWER ME!" --2020

You tried to block it all out. It would be over soon, it would be over soon, so please, please stop screaming, please, please, please, you didn’t want to do this-! --2020

there's also horrifying implications. i love to mess around with universes and worlds where things are uncanny, or plain wrong. perhaps a rift in the universe has left everything out of sorts?

or, more specifically, someone has been trying to create clones of you after murdering you in an act of desperate passion, but they keep falling and all of the clones resent their misguided creator... hahaaa..

He wanted to make another right then and there, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He wanted to tear his hands off and banish his dreaded ability of creation. He wished he couldn’t do this anymore. He sat there, alone, drowning in guilt as he sobbed loudly. Any bastardized copy wouldn’t suffice, no matter what he tried.

He jumped a bit, nearly slipping on the mystery residue at his feet. As soon as his vision got adjusted with the darkness, he fought the urge to scream in terror. If it weren’t for the fact that the other person across from him were upside down, and that their jaw was lopsided from their face, he would have sworn he was looking into a mirror. He was gazing right into a pair of dead, soulless eyes. And they were his own. --2020 [same fic as above]

manipulation? torment? why not.

"Now… you don't want your dearest brother to get hurt, now do you? You wouldn't do anything at all to jeopardize his safety." A smile. "Isn't that right, Mario?" --2021

and, based on people's impressions to FYE, at least, angst always lends itself well to horror, doesn't it? regret? grief? people being scared and sad together? it's a most deadly combination.

He damned the jester as he sat alone in the claustrophobic space with only Peasley’s rotting corpse as his company, wishing for death as the stench of spoiling fibrous flesh filled his nose. He sniffled, beginning to sob, fidgeting ever so slightly as he thought about how if he had only been stronger, only been quicker, this could have been different. They could have escaped the clutch of the void's songbird call. And he could have saved his beloved husband's life. --2021

and of course... gore. gore is pretty self-explanatory.

With a final sickening crunch and tear, the prince's neck was sliced clean off his shoulders, rolling away from the rest of his body with an unceremonious thud. --2018

With his caught in between the descending platform and the ground, there was no stopping what came next. With a sickening crunch, it pressed down, hard. It pulverized his arm beyond dust: gore and blood pooling from the spot as he screamed in anguish. Shock made him go numb. His vision was hazy. --2020

'starland', which is on my ao3, was actually going to be far more gorey than fye. but, alas, i lost the muse for that one. maybe someday, it will be continued...

and there's been many other generally dark stories as well. to provide just an inkling of context, i've written many before and after fye about dimentio being a general awful person to luigi and others, killing and torture abound. i've written a lot about super dimentio too! they're a really fun fusion to analyze. side fun fact: if you've read 'love like you' on my ao3, i have written a 'bad end' version of that... for full angst potential, you know.

i've also written plenty other "horror movie" versions of the mario franchise too. if you see fye as the "saw" of the mario universe, then i have others for various different franchises. i also have one piranha plant gijinka i made in 2018 who is an actual menace to society. whatever page he graces, he creates a mind-bending squickfest full of viscera. i know i have made various people sick with the fics i feature him in.

but to answer your question, my personal pick for my darkest fic is one i have is called 'tender', written in late 2021 — which was a working title as some point, but now it has stuck. while not very gorey, it is very heavy on the psychological torture and torment that scares me (personally) the most. in addition, it is one i will always only keep between me and my innermost circle of trusted comrades. the reason why? well, i actually haven't really written a darkfic since then, because i thought after finishing, "i've done it. i've written the darkest fic known to man" and thought there was no way i could possibly outdo myself. and since then, i have not been able to! makes my tummy twist just thinking about it. true horror there, that one.

context for these dialogue pieces? context for the fics i've alluded to? no....... you will simply have to draw your own conclusions... mwahahahah!!!!!!

or come and chat with me, haha! i'm always happy to talk about horror, but i like to do it outside of posting publicly since i know this is certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

well, i think that's a sufficient answer. here's to even more dark fics in the future!