Gaslight Trials | The Wattys2023 Shortlister ✔️ - Evelyn Hail - Wattpad

Gaslight Trials | The Wattys2023 Shortlister ✔️

Reads 27,560
Votes 1,055
Parts 20
Time 4h 14m

Reads 27,560
Votes 1,055
Parts 20
Time 4h 14m

| 𝟳𝘅 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 ·|| HUNGER GAMES x CINDER || ONC 2023 Honorable Mention

Amidst the escalating unrest between the windborne utopian city of Lighthaven and its seedy, oppressed underbelly Fumedge, the Grand Duke of Lighthaven, Lucius Sextus, comes up with an ingenious solution.

To provide much-wanted respite from the brewing conflict, and achieve the apparent-if-temporary unity, he organizes Gaslight Trials - a highly entertaining panem-et-circenses combat event in the Pits. 

The combatants may use all steam and thaumaturgy powered augmentations at their disposal, and there is only one rule: defeat, or be defeated.

The reward for the last one standing? A chance to start their life anew. A brass key to the city of Lighthaven with a luxurious mansion to call their own within, as well as an aeroship to command.

When eighteen-year-old Veda Igglesden steps forward to take her timeworn adoptive father's place in the fight, she might as well be signing her death-sentence. 

With her eyes fully set on the prize, act-first-think-later Veda must harness the power of technology to try and win for her Papa Otto. Decades of breathing in the toxic air of Fumedge did a number on the old inventor's lungs, and being able to live in the air-filtered Lighthaven would sure come in handy right about now.

A high-flying adventure full of gadgetry and intrigue; a pleasing blend of steampunk and postapocalyptic.

See Veda unravel the mysterious ploy behind the game's organization, and uncover the truth about her secret origins.

Can she cope both with the trials of physical and intellectual prowess, as well as with the trials of life itself: those of love, loss and regret?

© 2023 EvelynHail
Exclusively on Wattpad

Based on prompt 49! 

Which is (I shan't leave ye hanging :P): 

"Master the rules of the game until you can play it better than they can."
Michael Scott, "The Sorceress"

Get ready for steampunkish tinkering,All Rights Reserved

Table of contents

20 parts

Sign up to add Gaslight Trials | The Wattys2023 Shortlister ✔️ to your library and receive updates

or

Content Guidelines

You may also like

Exile: The Book of Ever by JamesCormier

Centuries after the Fall, the United States has been wiped away. The crumbling remains of the great American empire are home now only to savage, lawless tribes and packs of ravening Damned-the twisted children of the apocalypse. Most of those few who survived humanity's destruction spend their short lives in a violent struggle for survival. But some light still flickers in the darkness: the Blessed of Bountiful live in seclusion, relying on walls both physical and spiritual to protect them from the Desolation that their world has become. Among them are the Saints, those few men and women born with superhuman abilities that the Blessed see as gifts from God. The violent apostate tribes of the Northeast Kingdom have always been a danger, but up until recently its small size and the vigilance of its people have made Bountiful an unappealing target. As attacks on the community grow harsher and more frequent, however, even the steadfast Blessed are forced to start preparing for the worst. With her home's very existence threatened, seventeen year old Ever Oaks, a Saint with the power to heal, is forced to make a difficult choice, one that may come to define her people's future... Exile was a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence's Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO). Fantasy Faction said it was "extremely cool," and Bookish Lifestyle called it "more than just a story, a journey and an experience." When I'm asked about it, I often describe it as "X-Men meets The Walking Dead." In addition to reading it here for free, you can buy Exile in e-book or paperback on Amazon.com.

Snow by jule009

After an apocalyptic event that thrusts the world into a new ice age, Calestia - a 17-year-old girl with a strong will - must learn to survive on a land infested with gangs, guns, and distrust. ***** Nobody knows what day it is anymore. Nobody knows the month, the day of the week...and the only way to tell time is by the slight change in the color of the sky from grey to black every twenty-four hours. If a day even is twenty-four hours anymore. The planet is dead. The people are dead. Snow falls down upon piles of bodies like the ash of a volcanic eruption. Except, the snow doesn't stop. It never does. It continues to fall and fall until you wonder if it is even possible for another flake to come down and land silently in your hair. But it does. They do. There are few survivors of what the remaining have started to call the end of the world. The Apocalypse. Few who are still brave or scared of death enough to face the torture that is living. I am one of those survivors. Book One of the Snow Series Highest ranking: #3 in Sci-Fi Watty's Shortlisted

To the Well-Organized Mind by AyndhriaSoung

After Earth is ravaged by climate change and the Cataclysm-the largest earthquake in history- humans are struggling to survive. Swathes of unlivable landscapes, the Barrens, continue to grow. Everywhere else is a battleground, where humans fight each other for food, water, and shelter. Humanity's numbers further dwindle as they fall victim to a new bacteria unearthed by the Cataclysm, Dementium feralis. It causes humans to lose their higher cognitive functions and turn feral, like the primates they originated from. There is no cure. Nia is a survivor of this world. She makes a living doing the riskiest endeavors-traveling the Barrens, collecting survivors, and hunting for the remaining vaccines that can help delay feralism. People are in awe of her willingness to risk her life, but it's easy when your days are numbered, and hers are. She's turning feral. However, her latest foray into the Barrens leads to an incredible discovery: someone with the potential to create a feralism cure. But it takes time and risk to create a cure, without promise of a payout. To Nia, some fates are worse than death, and the only absolute is the oblivion of feralism awaiting her. She must choose what to embrace: the feralism that could be humanity's only survival, or the risk for a cure. **** Now available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Well-Organized-Mind-Andrea-Soung/dp/B0C6BQTZ2B/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Fl3EC&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=139-9204535-3864644&pd_rd_wg=rvk9V&pd_rd_r=1a892e06-01ad-4e5e-802a-e856a57daf20&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk **** Cover art compiled by Andrea Soung Man image credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/man-destruction-double-exposure-1519665/ Wasteland image credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/landscape-scenery-nature-deserts-6880552/

Always Doesn't Mean Forever: Book 1 (Severus Snape/student) by _idkdude_

TW: listen, I wrote this when I was 15 years old. I don't remember what's in half of it, nor do I really want to. 😅 It's not well written. It's crude, immature, and above all- a cry for help. The only reason I haven't archived it is because writing this story helped me disassociate for many years. It is what kept me going and while I don't really remember it's contents I do know I poured all of my personal trauma into it depending on my mood which was- well I'm on mood stabilizers now. 😅 Anyway it was the only thing I really had in life for a long time. I guess I'm still weirdly holding onto as a piece of me. Like my own little horcrux. That being said I do remember this can be just outright horrific. TW TW TW TW TW for literally everything. I don't know how else to put it. If you have a major trigger it's more than likely in this series and I didn't know what a trigger warning was so- enjoy. Or don't. Either way. 😅 I'm so sorry. Alex Knight is a Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She's in her fifth year and desires nothing more than to one day get away from her family to something better. As the year unravels Alex finds out things about herself that changes her entire life for good. Things really start to complicate when she falls for the potions master and nothing is ever the same as it was. Follow Alex on an adventure of new found knowledge, family secrets, hidden pasts, and much much more. I would also like everyone to remember I finished book one and two at the age of fifteen. So, please 😅

Walking the Ruins by RainerSalt

[Featured Wattpad Story] A girl cast into the future, navigating a dystopian wilderness with her friends. Leona and some friends are hiking in the rain, on a school excursion. She would prefer to be elsewhere. Suddenly, nausea takes hold of her. Then everything turns dark, and a clapping noise rips her world apart. They awake in the future. In an abandoned land of deserted, overgrown ruins, they have to fight for their lives. On her way through the wilderness, Leona discovers the bitter taste of pain, loneliness, and defeat. And when she finally finds other survivors, they are not what she expected. Genre: Somewhere between Science-Fiction and Adventure, and somewhere between Robinson Crusoe and The Hunger Games. Winner in the category "Post-Apocalyptic" of the Ooorahs! 2017 #1 in Science Fiction in September 2018

The Immortal Heroine: Funmare Foxy by AnniePaul5

A girl is force to be a boy since birth as an experiment before doing a sex change surgery to go full boy, but she's more powerful than they think as she raises her siblings herself when their 'father' wouldn't help them out while mother deals with the restaurant which makes money for the family. She's raped by her three friend each a year apart of each other and a year before her first rape, she tries to make something, but the workers took it apart making her to be upset as her mother deals with the idiots for this. Years go by and then one of her daughters got set to another dimension fully. The daughter has her three kids and husband with her as they got set to the year twenty-fourteen in Japan making them to stay hidden and to not come out making them to build a underground home, but many went to them for safety making them to have an underground city to protect them all from above. Can they protect soo many people and be able to help the dimension with their Number One Villain problem? Can they handle the future of Japan in this dimension where Heroes fight Villains? Can they're family find them in time or will both dimensions fuse together and make the two into one? FNA games: FNAF 1-12, The Return To Bloody Nights, One Night At Flumpty's, Five Nights at JR's, Five Nights At Candy's, Five Nights at Candy's 2, Five Nights at Candy's 3, Five Nights at Chuck E's, The Cog Forever Spinning and FNIA plus Genderbender FNIA. Animatronic Series: Springtimes, Originals, Shadows, Nightmares, Toys, Phantoms, Funtimes, Rockstars, Scarps, Glamrocks, ect, ect, ect. Dimensions fused together: FNAF with FNAF Books, FNAF with FNIA, FNAF with MHA and finally FNAF/MHA with Springtrap and Deliah.

Beyond Control by Astral_Astraea

Entering the world of high technologies, you see the modern and futuristic life, which allows you to live lavishly and comfortingly undisturbed. Behind all the technologies lie a dark truth on the inventions which is sealed off from the world. Every invention begin and fall before it rise up to the public's eyes. For every fail of an experiment, a life is expected to exterminated. Regardless of the law, people would do anything to accomplish the impossible. Due to an unexpected and unwelcoming event, Crystal Anderson, a college student had fell from a decent path of life to one deeper than it should be. There are truths behind lies, which she will have to unravel to the world. The ugly truths of the world and the excruciating truths of herself. Her mind commands anything that exist, nature bows to her, and it depends on how well she knows about that ability to use it. [Updates on every Saturday] Book cover by AI, and edited by me. ---this story is heavily unedited, and will be edited after it's finished (be mindful that there's tons of boring parts, too much yapping)---

The Island by AmyJohnson895

"This is The Island, a prison designed for minors like me- too young to be executed, too old to be reformed, and too much of a stain on humanity to let exist. It was 'the answer' to the growing crime rate resulting from a world that was falling apart. The details evade me, but there is one thing I know. The water doesn't seem as scary as it did before." When Jordyn wakes up in the middle of a tropical forest in the mouth of a cat too big to be real, she decides this isn't how she wants to die. The Island has other plans, though. It was designed to kill her, and it will bring out every gun in the arsenal to do so. Her life becomes a game of survival from the mutant and venomous animals, severe temperature changes, and impossible weather scenarios that exist in this government manufactured prison. The twist? She has no idea who she is, where she came from, or why she committed first-degree arson. In this mixture of "The Hunger Games" and "Maze Runner", Jordyn has to unravel the truth before nature kills her- or die not knowing. Highest Ranking: #45 in Science Fiction **2nd Place Winner of the 2017 Rose Awards** **Featured as a Wattpad Pick on 11/8/19**

Advanced Clockwork: Young Writers Prize 2014 by BlackmetalLyoko

With a world recovering from man's handiwork, a whole new adventure blooms from the aftermath. With a whole new outlook on futuristic technology and steam punk mechanics, the two clash together in a story that will blow your mind. Join our reluctant heroin as she is thrust into a whole world that has changed beyond her recognition as she goes through the trials and tests that will decide her fate in this world and how she will continue on. Will her symbiotic relations with the human world help her shed the metallic cage and become apart of this world? Or will she finally just except who she is and shed all hope of becoming anything like she once was? Will she rise or fall? She shall decide. Be sure to vote for your favorite chapters and if you want, leave a comment! Enjoy!

Lightning Seeker by FrennzyChaos

#2 Steampunk--- The year 2312. Robots dominate nearly every profession. But eighteen-year-old Vale is determined to prove herself and become a Lightning Seeker. After stowing away on an airship, she proves her worth by doing the impossible: outperforming an AI as a lookout. But can she pull off the same feat twice? Marooned on an AI ship, Vale must put her trust in a mysterious boy who can't talk if she is going to escape with her life. Book Two: Lightning Bringer (Currently Out) Book Three: Lightning Destroyer (Updated Weekly) -------------------------------------------------- Copyright- @FrennzyChaos Cover by Canva Started- 6/18/2020 Highest Ranks: ❊#2 IN STEAMPUNK - 11/01/2020 ❊#1 IN AIRSHIP - 11/27/2020 ❊#7 IN CYBERPUNK - 12/23/2020 ❊#30 IN ROBOTS - 05/30/2021 ❊#44 IN POST-APOCALYPTIC - 05/30/2021 ❊#70 IN FUTURISTIC - 06/02/2021 ❊#2 IN MUTE - 06/14/2021 If you are reading this story on any platform other than Wattpad or Inkitt, you are very likely to be at risk of a malware attack. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe, form, please go to Wattpad or Inkitt. Thank you.

You may also like

Slide 1 of 10

Exile: The Book of Ever cover

To the Well-Organized Mind cover

Always Doesn't Mean Forever: Book 1 (Severus Snape/student) cover

Walking the Ruins cover

The Immortal Heroine: Funmare Foxy cover

Beyond Control cover

The Island cover

Advanced Clockwork: Young Writers Prize 2014 cover

Lightning Seeker cover

Exile: The Book of Ever

Centuries after the Fall, the United States has been wiped away. The crumbling remains of the great American empire are home now only to savage, lawless tribes and packs of ravening Damned-the twisted children of the apocalypse. Most of those few who survived humanity's destruction spend their short lives in a violent struggle for survival. But some light still flickers in the darkness: the Blessed of Bountiful live in seclusion, relying on walls both physical and spiritual to protect them from the Desolation that their world has become. Among them are the Saints, those few men and women born with superhuman abilities that the Blessed see as gifts from God. The violent apostate tribes of the Northeast Kingdom have always been a danger, but up until recently its small size and the vigilance of its people have made Bountiful an unappealing target. As attacks on the community grow harsher and more frequent, however, even the steadfast Blessed are forced to start preparing for the worst. With her home's very existence threatened, seventeen year old Ever Oaks, a Saint with the power to heal, is forced to make a difficult choice, one that may come to define her people's future... Exile was a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence's Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO). Fantasy Faction said it was "extremely cool," and Bookish Lifestyle called it "more than just a story, a journey and an experience." When I'm asked about it, I often describe it as "X-Men meets The Walking Dead." In addition to reading it here for free, you can buy Exile in e-book or paperback on Amazon.com.