I'm looking for the kind of story where a character has to cope with existentially terrifying/existentially tragic circumstances but the narrative still leaves room for jokes, light-heartedness, relationships and hope.
I prefer fantastical scenarios that fit this mold but I'm also trying to expand my tastes so it's fine if some realistic fiction is thrown in here and there.
If you've played the visual novel 'Slay the Princess' that is exactly the kind of vibe I'm looking for except with a longer story instead of vignettes.
Natalie 'Thundamoo' Maher's web novels are also good examples for anyone who's read those. Especially 'Magical Girl Mechanical Heart' and 'Hive Minds Give Good Hugs'
If you don't know either of those then, first of all I highly recommend you read/play them.
And second but I'm looking for basically boils down to 'psychological horror offset by fun and hope.' I'll describe some scenarios that I would consider fitting the bill:
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Main character is trapped in a time loop with their soulmate only to be forced to kill each other over and over again, and still not being able to help falling in love.
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main character wakes up in the body of a robot slave forced to follow the orders of an insane vindictive master while getting to know and befriending everyone in that master's life, and at least the robot body is cool.
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main character slowly realizes that their world is a game and everything that they've spent their life fighting for is just a poorly written narrative, after being broken out of the narrative their existence causes bugs in the code of their world accidentally freeing in befriending other characters.
Obviously, they're not the only scenarios that fit but those are the ones that come to mind right now.
Help me fill out that list, please.
by okidonthaveone