Echoes of a Gilded Smile
By @john1208
Everyone thinks I'm the bubbly, scatterbrained Mirage-Crafter of the Oshal Guild, happily riding the coattails of my genius partner, Ravos. I've loved him for years in agonizing silence, but we both hide our true hearts behind a strictly professional partnership. That includes our newest junior colleague, Nimoe. With her wide eyes and clumsy mistakes, Nimoe plays the perfect innocent victim. Lately, she's been posting ambiguous photos on the Echo-Net - Ravos's coat on her chair, two mugs on his desk - trying to paint me as the jealous, abusive senior holding him hostage. She thinks I don't notice. But she doesn't realize my 'airhead' persona is my greatest weapon. When Nimoe crashes our strategic engagement gala in tears, accusing me of bullying her, she expects Ravos to rush to her defense. Instead, he ignores her pathetic weeping entirely, gently wiping a drop of spilled wine from my wrist to make sure I'm comfortable. Then, I let my mechanical shimmer-mink, Glim, project his hidden camera footage onto the ballroom ceiling. It doesn't just show Nimoe staging those pathetic photos - it reveals her uploading classified Guild codes to an enemy network. Will she enjoy playing the victim from a maximum-security cell?
2
The Weeping Squall
By @john1208
Qorina is a fiercely kind-hearted weather-sculptor who wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone her fragile junior colleague, Zutchi. So when Qorina frantically chases an escaped miniature typhoon through the workshop just to save Zutchi's desk, she is baffled when Zutchi throws herself to the floor, sobbing that Qorina maliciously summoned the storm to attack her when no one was looking. Zutchi expects Qorina’s stoic crafting partner, Vayun, to rush to her defense. Instead, the germ-averse artisan immediately recoils, physically stepping back and throwing up a sterilization barrier to avoid the weeping girl. As Zutchi doubles down on her victim act to steal Qorina’s prestigious Grand Monsoon Commission, Qorina cheerfully lets her have it, completely missing the malice. What the tearful junior doesn't realize is that Qorina was originally chosen because her excessive kindness made her the perfect clueless sacrifice for a cursed artifact. By successfully 'stealing' the reward, Zutchi has walked straight into a lethal trap. With Zutchi's wealthy aristocratic backers poised to publicly abandon her once the truth of the curse is revealed, can Qorina and Vayun survive the satirical fallout without blowing up the workshop?
0