In a city floating among the clouds, life is spent fighting gravity. To end up on the surface of the Earth amongst enormous, roving clouds of carbon dioxide would be certain death. Yet no city can exist as an island in the sky; steel rusts and motors fail. Someone needs to be supplying the city with resources to repair or replace. The Retrieval Corp is the best of the best. The best windsurfers, most resourceful engineers, the most creative salvagers. Together, these courageous few brave the surface and retrieve whatever the city needs. Allisios Soliros has spent his life working towards joining the Retrieval Team. Now, with a coveted spot open, only one thing stands between him and his dream. His father. ONC Prompt 78: You begin to realize nothing is quite what it seems. ONC Prompt 16: And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

When 15-year-old Izel Aziz gets a note during his last period at school, warning him not to touch any electronics in his home, he thinks nothing of it (or at least thinks he doesn't.) That is, of course, when he goes to log into his and his sister's co-op save of Moonwillow Hollow, only for him to be sucked into the game upon pressing the save file. When he enters the game though, everything seems a lot more real than he thought this pixel filled world would be... {#3 in freethelgbt on 2/7/26 #2 in dontjudgeabookbyitscover on 2/7/26 to 2/11/26} ONC Prompts: 8. You wake up inside Stardew Valley with no idea how you got there and no guarantee you'll ever get back home. 79. A letter arrives addressed to you, written by someone who shouldn't exist.

Mark Robinson is twenty-two and already exhausted by love. begins as another humiliating night at a costume party in the middle of nowhere spirals into a sequence of increasingly unexplainable events. Suddenly, the boy who couldn't commit to a major is forced to commit to something much bigger. Something disorienting. Part coming-of-age, part cosmic misadventure, this is the story of a young man who thought his biggest problem was being bad at love-only to discover that love, like the universe, is much stranger, much larger, and far less interested in his excuses than he assumed. He wanted closure. Instead, he gets perspective. ˚☆༊*·˚✩*ೃ.⋆.✧˖°🛸💫🛰️⁺˚⋆⋰˚☆༊*·˚✩*ೃ.⋆.⋆ Participant of the || Open Novella Contest 2026. Main prompt: 27. When you glance up at the stars, you notice strange patterns and flashing lights. Then a bright beam appears, and you feel your feet leave the ground. Secondary prompts: 78. You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems. 2026 Umi Moriko Original

Lauren Corvane was promised a crown before she was old enough to understand its weight. Her arranged marriage to the future king was meant to secure peace between houses and strengthen the realm. Instead, it becomes the beginning of her ruin. As political games turn deadly and betrayal cuts deeper than any blade, she loses everything she loves in the span of months. A missing child. A broken family. A fiance who chooses lust over justice. In a world where is a luxury reserved for men already in power, Lauren chooses something else. War. Because when the last raven rises, it does not sing. It hunts. ⭑*•̩̩͙•• ₊˚⋆｡‧₊•̩̩͙••°♱༺𓆩𓅪𓆪༻♱••̩̩͙•༉‧₊˚.˚｡⋆••̩̩͙•*⭑ Participant of the || Open Novella Contest 2026. Main prompt: 45. »Kings have honor, soldiers are brave, poets have heart, and all I have is rage!« (Sound by Naethan Apollo) 2026 Umi Moriko Original

As Valentine's Day unravels into cosmic chaos, the threads of love begin to snap. Couples fall apart wherever Azrail walks, earning him an unexpected title: "The Grim Reaper of Relationships." If there is one thing Azrail knows―it is death. He does not hesitate. He does not bargain. He does not make mistakes. Until Dr. Saoirse. She can see him―and she hates him for what he does. Again and again, she stands between Azrail and the souls he must collect. But immortality comes with a price, and Azrail cannot afford interference. To remain immortal, he must deal with five souls. And time is running out. ~~ONC 2026~~ MAIN PROMPT : 54. They've earned a reputation as the grim reaper of relationships. Every couple they get close to eventually breaks up, though each person somehow finds their perfect match afterward. Now they're determined to understand the "curse" and maybe find their own happy ending, with a few persistent frenemies complicating things.

Once, the Sorceresses of House Ifan were legendary for their service to the Sanctified Kingdom of Alkith. Invading Empires, malicious Demons and wicked wielders of the arcane were all foiled by their wisdom and the power of their magic. A curse placed upon their bloodline brought an end to those days, the final spiteful act of one of the last foes they defeated ensuring all who followed after would be beset by eternal dire luck. Centuries have passed since that day, and the passage of time, the arrival of new heroes to the Kingdom, and the march of technology has only cemented the decline of House Ifan's legacy. Lady Morgan has known this story all her life. Abysmal fortune is as natural to her as breathing. Leading a (relatively) quiet life as a breaker of less persistent curses and all-around aid in sorcerous matters, she has long since accepted that her idle explorations of her family's curse are unlikely to truly bear any fruit. But when the curse inexplicably begins to worsen, she is left with no choice but to deepen her investigation, even if it requires her to trust in a mysterious, impossibly kind stranger, and unveil secrets that some may have preferred to remain buried forever. Content Warnings: Light violence, references to depression, references to past religious and cultural discrimination, references to past child neglect.

In a world trapped in an unending darkness, Devin must fight exhaustion and time itself to find his sister as the shadows grow smarter and those who surrender to sleep become something that hunts the survivors. .. When the sun vanished, time stopped. Hunger, wounds, and exhaustion accumulate without relief. Sleep becomes dangerous. Surrender and you might not wake up human. Devin Pierce has been awake for days. Maybe weeks. It's hard to tell anymore. He's learned how to stay still, ration light, and ignore the voices that sound like people he once knew. Because the darkness is not empty. It watches. It learns. And the things moving inside it remember what they used to be and how to use that. As Devin's body begins to fail and the night presses closer, he must decide how much of himself he's willing to lose to see another hour - to find his little sister - before exhaustion makes the choice for him. If there's one thing he cannot do, it's fall asleep. Prompt 97 Rated Mature for descriptions of gore and psychological elements. Reader discretion is advised. Cover by TrashyM

Cassandra Shaw, the heir to the renowned Shaw estate, has finally become eligible for marriage, allowing her to take over her father's clan. The monster-hunting clan is in distress due to his recent demise, and they need a brave and determined leader who'll take over. Unfortunately, she keeps refusing the advances of every single suitor, waiting for her true love. As time goes by, she starts believing she'll never find him, and eventually, she starts giving up, ready for any prospects that will enable her to preserve the future of her clan. Then, she remembers a prophecy in her dreams - a prophecy that might just help her solve everything - and two men, different as night and day, come to her like they were ordered. Hyacinth and Edmund Lawrence. Two brothers with a growing distance between them. A brooding rebel and a natural socialite. Both speak to a side of her she's connected to deeply. Both fascinate her from the day she meets them. Both seem destined to be the love of her life. Yet one will save her, and one will ruin her. The question remains: Which is which? *** 45. "Kings have honor, soldiers are brave, poets have heart, and all I have is rage!" (Sound by Naethan Apollo) 46. "We love broken, beautiful people. And it doesn't get more obviously broken and more classically beautiful than you." (A slightly modified quote from "Daisy Jones & The Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid) 115. A prophecy claims you will love two people. One destined to save your life and the other destined to destroy it. The trouble is, you have no idea which is which.

ONC 2026 You were hired to be their companion, nothing more, but as their illness worsens, you're caught between responsibility, longing, and the ache of knowing you can't save them.