>>24349659I was thinking because of the discussion something that would exploit the niche fear of developing mental disorders (niche as in not exactly a fear a lot of people think about frequently like being murdered etc) that involved Haato and some sort of corrupting presence around her, but that's only a very barely thought out concept off the top of my sleep-deprived head. As much as it's played for laughs I still think her insane schizoid nonsense has a lot of really good potential, but I'm weak to stuff like that to begin with, I guess, so bias exists.
On the EN side of things, weird scary shit is definitely more prominent, at least in memory. The example provided earlier with Fauna turning people into fucking trees is very much a terrifying concept, at least to me. Rushia WOULD have been a good candidate for exploiting the fear of living past all your loved ones if done in a subtle way (an interaction with Rushia goes well until you realize one day years later that while everyone else around you has begun to show signs of aging you're still in your mid 20s, only to realize that as it goes on you're going to have to watch everyone you love or care for die), but y'know, that shit happened and now they've been isekai'd into a cat. A lot of good horror, in my opinion, doesn't just rely on 'HOLY SHIT LUNA HAS A GUN' as was already discussed earlier by
>>24340251. Horror in writing has its strengths primarily by sticking you with ideas that unsettle you and fester for awhile. An example off the top of my head would probably be
and I don't care how much flak I'm going to get for this fuck you is the ending to Stephen King's Revival, which still lives rent free in my head five+ years after finishing it by building up the entire book with the question of "What happens after you die?", a common question that almost everyone has thought about in the past and then giving an incredibly grim answer.
This sort of turned into a rant about horror stuff but it's something I'm passionate about, I guess. Horror in writing, while gore and stuff is fine, is really good at picking at stranger, more esoteric fears. Being forgotten, losing yourself, all that. You could probably do a darker take on the Marine with Alzheimer's fic from (You)r perspective and it'd make at least one person recoil in fear and worry about their future.