Lanterns and Leviathans
By @john1208
Nimmi’s ordinary morning goes horribly wrong when she wakes up to a shattered workshop window and her most precious glass lanterns smashed to pieces. But instead of crying, the supposedly airheaded artisan cheerfully sweeps up the shards and turns them into a breathtaking stained-glass mosaic that immediately triples in value. Across the street, her seemingly loyal childhood best friend, Janna, grinds her teeth in frustration. Janna has contracted a Fate-Thief System that siphons energy every time Nimmi feels insecure, but Nimmi's unshakeable optimism and her fiercely loyal neighborhood friends are starving the parasite to death. While Janna scrambles to complete impossible sabotage missions, Nimmi is busy romancing the grumpy canal-warden, Renzo, and trying to track down the cute 'gutter-sprite' that keeps stealing her defective lamps. Unbeknownst to everyone, the two girls' plot lines are actually one and the same. The System is terrified of an awakening Abyssal Leviathan, urging Janna to steal Nimmi's luck to survive the coming apocalypse. But how is Janna supposed to defeat a world-ending monster when the dread Leviathan is just Nimmi's overgrown gutter-sprite, acting like a giant, glowing puppy begging for more toys?
3
Cooking Up a Charade
By @john1208
Savia Corves is known across the floating archipelago of Pelagosa as a cheerful, empty-headed socialite - a brilliant facade that perfectly masks her true work as an underground investigator. When a botched mission leaves her waking up stranded on the dizzying heights of the Grand Chronometer, she desperately needs a cover story. Enter Rellian Vance, the city's most scandalous playboy. To infiltrate her cheating ex's week-long wedding festival and expose a deadly smuggling ring, Savia proposes a fake romance, invoking the cultural 'Festival Vow'. Rellian agrees with suspicious ease. Told in alternating perspectives between Savia and Rellian, the mission slowly takes a backseat to their simmering chemistry. Rellian plays his part flawlessly, constantly whispering filthy jokes into her ear just to capture her genuine, breathless laughter for the hovering magi-lenses. Behind closed doors, he sheds his careless persona, proving to be an incredibly patient culinary genius who cooks elaborate, comforting meals to soothe her frayed nerves. But when a skirmish with the smugglers leaves Savia injured and Rellian completely loses his mind in a terrifying, possessive panic, the pieces finally click. If he was just acting, why is he looking at her like he'd burn the world down for her? And what exactly did the rules of the 'Festival Vow' actually entail?
2
The Drifting Orchards
By @john1208
Brisca Tolvay’s brain finally short-circuited. Crushed by severe depression and a commercial architecture firm that bled her dry, she grabbed her eight-year-old brother, Pello, and boarded a random late-night ferry to escape the city. She wakes up somewhere impossible: a lush, sun-drenched countryside farm full of grazing sheep and blooming apple trees, entirely situated on a massive, slow-moving river barge. Here, she meets Odis Corval, a wandering traveler with a vintage camera. He is quickly captivated by Brisca’s relentless, airheaded cheerfulness - and the sharply intelligent way she secretly orchestrates the farm's chores to keep her brother smiling. Together, they form a profound platonic bond, healing each other's hidden wounds through quiet mornings and shared meals. But nobody mentioned the farm's strict time limit: in exactly fourteen days, the barge will cross the international border, forcing a chaotic return to reality. When the river runs out, they part ways, assuming they'll never meet again. So how does her rugged barge companion end up as the hired photographer at her mutual friend's city wedding months later?
1