Lounging in the Shadows
By @john1208
Tarnstead in 1979 is a damp, fog-choked town brimming with sinister secrets and ambitious locals. Ovidia Gable couldn't care less. After an ordinary morning of brewing instant coffee goes terribly wrong - interrupted by a bleeding wall and a screeching aunt - Ovi realizes she is trapped in a thriller, and decides she is entirely opting out of her family's gothic drama. Her solution? Marry Mercer Hayes, a brooding, gigantic outcast rumored to be a dangerous cryptid, just to escape the estate. To the town's horror, Mercer doesn't murder Ovi; he bakes her fresh scones, scrubs the floors, and ensures she never lifts a finger. Told in alternating third-person perspectives between the shameless slacker and her intensely domestic husband, their quiet life thrives. While the hardworking local heroine, Enid, exhausts herself investigating the town's curses, Ovi’s lazy demand to buy a 'quiet, cursed swamp' for her hammock accidentally sits them on a fortune in rare medicinal truffles. Mercer becomes a wealthy tycoon to fund his wife's lounging. But Tarnstead's shadows are restless. With Ovi's fiercely loyal best friend Leta harboring a treacherous secret, can Ovi survive the town's real mastermind without ever having to get out of bed?
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I Tried to Repulse My Murderous Rival, Now He's Wearing a Leash
By @john1208
I'm currently sprinting down the gleaming crystal halls of the Prismatic Citadel, dressed in a matted, flea-bitten Gloom-Yeti pelt, reeking of fermented cabbage, and screaming like a banshee. My goal? To make Rhydar - the top student and my bitter rival - so utterly repulsed that he never looks my way again. In my past life, Rhydar seemingly snapped and slaughtered the entire Citadel, leaving me to bleed out in the ruins. Now that I've regressed, my naturally shy self is determined to survive by pretending to be the most unappealing, unhinged girl in existence. There's just one problem. When an assassin ambushes Rhydar in the courtyard, my thick, hideous yeti pelt accidentally absorbs a barrage of lethal poison needles meant for his heart. Instead of being disgusted by my feral persona, my terrifying rival now looks at me with wide, puppy-dog eyes, convinced I'm a self-sacrificing saint. He's even willingly locked a mythical Oath-Collar around his own neck, handing me the leash to prove he'll never hurt me! With my sweet mentor Lennis pushing us together, can I keep running from the boy destined to kill me, or is the real monster someone else entirely?
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