The Gifted (ONC 2023)

Author's Note

Hello lovely Readers! 

It's that time of the year again! ONC season is officially open! ^_^

I absolutely love reading all the prompts and then, right after they are out, seeing plenty of people putting their shiny new stories out there. It's always fun to see what different stories people come out with using the same prompts. 

So, of course, I had to join the crazy bandwagon this year too ^_^

Now, some of you who followed me for a while might recall that I did attempt ONC last year too, but ended up writing a novel instead of a novella. Whoopsies. I don't regret a thing though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So this year, I decided to be smarter. Instead of using a main idea for the story I had in mind (which tends to be far too long to fit a novella word count), I decided I would write the prequel to the novel I have in mind. Which I haven't written or outlined yet. That's right, deal with it *^____^*

I love superheroes, both Marvel and DC and everything in between. So I always wanted to write a story with superheroes as a theme. And because I have big plans for that one, I choose to write for ONC a sort of backstory for one of the protagonists from the main novel. Those will be events that impacted the heroine greatly and made her the person she is later (there will be a few years time skip between the two stories). 

So yeah, expect some cool powers, loads of action, drama and heartbreaks （＾∀＾●）ﾉｼ

So, since the whole thing is written for ONC 2023 the prompt I chose is this one:

20. You finally build enough courage to talk to that cute someone you see every day on the bus. Their face turns dark as they respond "You shouldn't be able to see me."

Pronunciation Guide

For this novella, I decided to make my protagonists Polish (I'm Polish, so why not share a little bit of my culture? ^_^). And so, I purposefully chose the name that can be hard to pronounce or their short forms are not intuitive for English-speaking people. That way, you can learn something new, and isn't that fun? :D

Aleksandra Leszczyńska (Leshchynska) - in the brackets, you have the way you can read it. It's still not a perfect pronunciation, but close. I always find it funny when English people try to pronounce some Polish names, so I thought I'll share it with you! :D

Short forms: Now, English people would go for Aleks (it's ks instead of x because of polish spelling), and that's what most people in the story will call her (as the setting is modern-day England). But Polish peeps wouldn't use that. In Polish, the name Aleksandra has a completely different form, which is Ola (because why not? xD). So her mother and brother would occasionally call her Ola, Oleńka, Oluś the last two, being sort of pet names you call children. 

Antoni Leszczyński (Leshchynski) - now you might have noticed the difference in surname ending because some surnames take different forms for men and women. Not all of them, but some. Because again, you can't have it too easy. So, similar to Aleksandra, the name Antoni also has some short forms that are not intuitive for English speakers. In the story, most people will call him Toni, because it's short and sweet and intuitive. But in Polish, the most common form is Antek, Anton, Antoś, Antonek, with the last two, again, being how you call a child, not exactly the adult (unless you're the mum, so then you can call him whatever you like ;)). 

That's it for the language lesson today. I'll add more if the need arises (meaning, if I decide to call the mum some funny name too ^_^).

Additional notes: I'm using British English, so the spelling of some words may be different than US or AU English (like mum instead of mom, honour instead of honor), so bear with me and don't shout that I can't spell mum properly. 

That said, as I'll be posting a rough first draft here, so there will be some typos and funny phrases, so feel free to point it out for me if you spot something that looks suspiciously funny.

I will not have a set posting schedule for this project since it's a side project, and I'll be working on it when my schedule allows me. But I'm going to do my best to write the whole novella in the ONC timeline, so don't worry. I don't leave you hanging for long. The first chapter is already written, so I'll be posting it as soon as I roughly edit it to be readable. 

Playlist

Unlike most of my story, this one was not inspired by any song (the main novel was, though, but we'll talk about it when we get there :>). So far, I have just a couple of songs that fit the story, but I'll find more as I write, so I will keep updating the list and, as always, add the fitting music in the chapters' headers (because I love doing that).

Here's what I've got so far:

Hidden Citizens - Somebody's Watching Me

WAR*HALL - All This Power

Hidden Citizens - Hold On To Me

Halestorm - I Am the Fire

Temperance - I Am the Fire

The Dirty Youth - Creep

The Dirty Youth - Gravity

The Dirty Youth - Who I Am

Eva Under Fire - Blow

Sumo Cyco - No Surrender

Icon for Hire - Curse or Cure

Amaranthe - Invincible 

Anavae - Hold on 

Kamelot - Mindfall Remedy

Kamelot - Liar Liar

Allen/Olzon - Who's Gonna Stop Me Now

WAR*HALL - Play with Fire

Phantom Elite - Apex

Hidden Citizen(feat ESSA) - Heroes Fall

Copyright and stuff

This is a story imagined and written solely by yours truly, so don't be a sore loser and steal it. It will only be posted on W a t t p a d, so if you see it somewhere else, don't click on it, as you risk getting some nasty malware. And do let me know, so I can send Antoni to burn the thieves to crisps. 

The Gifted is a work of fiction and any similarities to real people are completely unintended. The story will contain some scenes of violence, but I will put trigger warnings in certain chapters so you get the warning beforehand. 

Thank you again for checking out my story, and I hope you enjoy reading it! (and if yes, don't forget to vote, comment and tell your friends about it ^_^)