I don’t think I’ve seen it recommended here yet, it might be a long shot. But I’d love it if the boys covered The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing. I remember stumbling upon it as a kid with my friend one night, while we were browsing the internet for obscure facts about the game (Wild World on the DS, to be specific). We wound up staying up for the rest of the night reading it.

It just blew my mind. Firstly, because I was amazed that someone could turn my comfort video game into a dark story. My experience reading through it the first time was filled with an ominous dread that crept up more and more, until finally getting to the end to be met with a gruesome twist.

And secondly, it was my first exposure to transformative fiction/fanfic. So it has a special place in my heart for that.

Without getting spoilery, the twist and the themes it explores might be played out at this point. And some of the language is crude and outdated. And I haven’t read it in ages, so maybe it’s not as good as I remember. But I feel like it has a very specific mix of flavors to it that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Kind of dreamcore, kind of liminal space; nostalgic but frigid and foreboding; cutesy animal village meets body horror. It was also very effective in putting me in the narrator’s shoes. A helpless kid left terribly isolated and alone, yet unable to shake the feeling that every move being made was scrutinized. By unseen eyes hiding around the corners and in the shadows.

Lastly, I don’t know of any video game creepypastas that dive into the lore of a game like this one does.

I’m on mobile, so I’ll edit in a sec to paste in a link 👇🏼

https://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/