Summer of Horror 2026 Fics, Part Two
Aug. 6th, 2026 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI also want to share the two stories I received for this year’s summerofhorrorexchange!
A Seaside Romance
The Shadow Over Innsmouth . 4,424 words
This story is set in Innsmouth in the current day. A data center is scheduled to be built next to Innsmouth, which has managed to resist gentrification by generally being not such a nice place to live. This story is narrated by a semi-professional protestor and community organizer who moves to Innsmouth, starts dating a mixed-species resident, and ends up getting herself involved in the local cult. The narrative voice of this story is truly fantastic, as are its descriptions of the decrepitude of this horrible little town.
As an aside, I want to say that this story was written by the author of (this) viral post on Tumblr about the value of darkfic, as well as how fandom purity politics are garbage. If you’re curious about how a legendary villain defender actually writes darkfic, the answer is that they write it extremely well.
An (Unfinished) Report from the End of the World
Final Fantasy VI . 1,012 words
This is a series of land surveyor reports on the fate of various locations in the World of Ruin. It’s filled with lore and local color, as well as a sense of mystery surrounding what happened to the surveyor. This story reminds me of the small bits of flavor text often included with the video game guides published in the 1990s, of which Final Fantasy VI had several (of both the official and the unofficial varieties). I got so nostalgic that I ended up going back into an old FFVI save file and finishing the game. Which is an amazing bonus joy of good fanfic.
This author also wrote (this) story that imagines the contemporary Zelda from Zelda I and the now-woken ancient Zelda from Zelda II meeting each other and learning to communicate despite centuries of linguistic drift. This has long been one of my favorite stories in the fandom, not to mention a huge inspiration.
In both cases, it feels like Shakespeare took time out of his schedule to write fanfic for me. I’m afraid my head will explode if I think about this too hard honestly. But I'm not complaining!
summerofhorrorexchange!A Seaside Romance
The Shadow Over Innsmouth . 4,424 words
This story is set in Innsmouth in the current day. A data center is scheduled to be built next to Innsmouth, which has managed to resist gentrification by generally being not such a nice place to live. This story is narrated by a semi-professional protestor and community organizer who moves to Innsmouth, starts dating a mixed-species resident, and ends up getting herself involved in the local cult. The narrative voice of this story is truly fantastic, as are its descriptions of the decrepitude of this horrible little town.
As an aside, I want to say that this story was written by the author of (this) viral post on Tumblr about the value of darkfic, as well as how fandom purity politics are garbage. If you’re curious about how a legendary villain defender actually writes darkfic, the answer is that they write it extremely well.
An (Unfinished) Report from the End of the World
Final Fantasy VI . 1,012 words
This is a series of land surveyor reports on the fate of various locations in the World of Ruin. It’s filled with lore and local color, as well as a sense of mystery surrounding what happened to the surveyor. This story reminds me of the small bits of flavor text often included with the video game guides published in the 1990s, of which Final Fantasy VI had several (of both the official and the unofficial varieties). I got so nostalgic that I ended up going back into an old FFVI save file and finishing the game. Which is an amazing bonus joy of good fanfic.
This author also wrote (this) story that imagines the contemporary Zelda from Zelda I and the now-woken ancient Zelda from Zelda II meeting each other and learning to communicate despite centuries of linguistic drift. This has long been one of my favorite stories in the fandom, not to mention a huge inspiration.
In both cases, it feels like Shakespeare took time out of his schedule to write fanfic for me. I’m afraid my head will explode if I think about this too hard honestly. But I'm not complaining!
