My Girl by @anon66621404 is “a linear, gothic work of interactive fiction made for the Bluebeard Jam, 2024”. Superficially, it’s a fairly faithful telling of the Bluebeard story. But in Perrault’s version the horror begins with the reveal of the corpses in the basement. In My Girl, the horror is there from the very start.
His favourite endearment to employ is ‘my girl.’ Santiago smells of the sea, navy blue overcoat sun-faded from hard wear. The golden buttons are polished clean, visible signs of mending meandering over the breast pocket: small flowers sprouting from the wool. He wears the old, tatty thing, when he’s in a particularly good mood.
“My girl,” he says, reaching out to take hold of your hand, clasped lightly between both of his. He pets you like a small animal, a cosseted cat. His flesh is cold, as frigid as the arctic seas he made his fortune upon. In the trade of silks, rum, and golden fripperies: the very same with which he adorns the house he’s kept you in.
She’s implicitly denied personhood, she’s an accessory, a possession. His girl.
The writing is good: it has a distinct narrative voice that does a good job of maintaining the story’s tone even when nothing overtly horrible is going on at the moment. (There were a couple of transitions I found to be abrupt, but that’s a small matter.)
I recommend it.
(In ways this echoes Andromeda Chained, above but with a grimmer tone.)