Frequencies of a Paper Fortune
By @john1208
Oona Carlow died a lonely, cynical tycoon. Waking up inside the claustrophobic, neon-lit prize chute of a claw machine in 1989, the newly minted five-year-old kindergartener realizes she has a second chance to save her hopelessly naive parents. Hamstrung by their blind filial piety to Oona's abusive grandmother, the family is on the brink of ruin. Oona's solution? Claiming she 'heard it on the local radio,' she secretly orchestrates the launch of a wildly popular street food stall selling Sugar-Glazed Sun-Pockets. As the stall blossoms into a boardwalk empire, Oona vows to do things differently this time, remaining kind-hearted to a fault and sharing her childhood with Julian, a quiet boy who becomes her whole world. But Oona is hoarding her wealth for a specific date, believing an impending financial crash is the ultimate enemy she must buy her way out of. Will her endless generosity doom her family's savings, or will she realize she misunderstood the rules of her regression entirely before the grandmother springs her final trap?
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The Polka-Dot Tycoon
By @john1208
In the neon-tinted coastal mountains of 1989 Vellarno, Zetta Floris has a major problem: she is three years old, trapped in a scratchy polka-dot dress, and her hopelessly naive father is about to confess to a smuggling crime committed by her sleazy Uncle Gavril. Armed with a cynical adult mind and the strategic use of toddler tears, Zetta stages a chaotic runaway soapbox-cart chase to intercept him. To keep her family afloat and protect her newborn brother Tino, Zetta deploys her ultimate weapon: pretending the local patron spirit sends her prophetic dreams. Guided by her babbling 'visions,' her bewildered parents harvest the ultra-rare Silver-Crested Truffle, laying the first stone of a massive retro-botanical empire. Zetta isn't working alone, however. She recruits Tavito, a brooding six-year-old runaway hiding in their village, forging an alliance that blossoms into a sweeping romance as they grow up side by side. As cassette tapes play and vintage Vespas roar, Tavito's quest to avenge his fallen family and Zetta's campaign to build an invincible business empire seem entirely separate. But what happens when the shadowy syndicate hunting Tavito turns out to be the exact same organization pulling her uncle's strings?
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