Onc2021 Stories

Sol, daughter of the Melefica, Betrothed Queen to the Ursa, Mate to the last Draco of the Mother. Pretty titles for a pretty woman, more powerful with her words than with her magic and yet, she could easily bring down Kingdoms around her. Especially the Ursa Empire. Rescuing her dragon, and being called to war, the rightful King of the Draco will burn and rise again, with the power of the Melefica. War is coming. He is coming. ------ Prompt 63 - You, a magic wielder, accidently stole the most fearsome supernatural family's relic Written for Open Novella Contest 2021

[ONC ROUND I AMBASSADOR PICKS] "You can't burn all of the witches, dear child. Where one falls, another drinks her blood and rises." A sellsword discovers that perhaps, just perhaps, maybe the humanity she is trying to save doesn't have much humanity after all. © irya kadlec, 2021

Most people in the human realm have lived comfortable lives with little to no interactions with supernatural beings aside from the occasional ghost activity. However, across the whole world, people and supernaturals, have lived in fear of the Black Dog Murderer. It is said that when someone encounters the infamous black dog, they soon die.

If you could live any life imaginable through the means of some coding and digital imaging, wouldn't you at least be intrigued to try it out? What started out as one company's venture into virtual reality and simulation experiencing, governments all around the world corrupted an innocent dream for the future of all humanity. Aurelius Corp. never intended its users to be trapped indefinitely in a loop of simulations, but the human mind always bends to the greed and promises that wealth brings. Skylar Oakley was one among the billions living in poverty who always dreamed of a better life. Aurelius Corp. developed the solution to Skylar's dream - a simple implant, operated by downloading a simulation onto the software to be run at the discretion of the user. However, as politics infiltrated and corrupted this idea for an occasional escape from reality, Aurelius Corp. sold the rights to their technology for unlimited wealth. While distracted by these alternate realities providing a better life for each individual, nobody questioned when everyone was subdued to the simulations indefinitely. After having lived through multiple lifelong dreams, Skylar began to notice some flaws within the system itself. Why were they so happy? Why couldn't they remember a time before the technology? Where was the exit to the program? Why did they want to leave the perfectly programmed life just to go back to the poverty, illness, and hate of reality? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is my ONC 2021 project based on prompt #79: "The Virtual Implant was supposed to be a revolutionary breakthrough; for a time, it was. "

[ONC 2021 Grand Winner] After the events of Ragnarök, the God Vidar has settled in the nice and quiet city of Antwerp where he keeps an eye on the local paranormal community. Nearly a millennium later, Vidar is a grumbling bookstore owner by day and a lazy paranormal detective by night (albeit a slightly furry one during a full moon). The morning after a particularly rough transition, the young teenage girl who normally wastes her days on the skatepark across the street enters his shop, fervently looking for a book on the legend of Brabo and Antigonus. As she struggles to pay, she reveals that the bronze giant has disappeared from the statue on the town square. At the foot of the fountain now lies a body that has been dead for three hundred years. Prompts chosen: (25) The war has ended, and thus the immortals return to their natural state: forgotten, hiding in the shadows until humankind is in need of them once more. They did not expect to be stumbled upon by a young farm apprentice. (*) (60) Rumours of a mysterious dark force under the earth have spread around the city. You are sent to investigate. (*) To fit the plot I have in mind, the young farm apprentice will become a bookstore "apprentice"

In the three years since the dead started to walk, Kelly has been wandering the wasteland that used to be the United States. She's learned to protect herself from the dangers of a world of flesh eating monsters and people operating free of laws. Jake is ready to hit the road after three years of trying to keep his family and friends safe and alive. Being alone will be a new experience for him. When the two meet they will find that home isn't always a place. Written for Round ONE of the 2021 English Open Novella Contest

When he was sixteen, Lu Ten thought the Fire Nation would change the world. At age thirty, he realized it wasn't the world that needed changing, right at the same time some of his not so clever life choices started catching up to him. It was time to become wise, like someone he greatly admired, even if he couldn't do anything with said wisdom. Disclaimer - I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is both a giftfic for a good friend of mine, KelseyAlicia who encouraged me to go the route of Lu Ten/Ursa in my To Lose or to Gain series, but also an ONC project. While parts of this story arc are AU to where I intend on taking the To Lose or to Gain series others are not. The prompt I am using is number thirty, "'Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.' - Rumi."

𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 ────────── 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡; 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 In a world where magic-wielders are prosecuted and branded with the punishment of death, there is no escape for Nyrinn Santyere. She is a Maga, one of the rare magic-wielders forced into hiding after the Extermination years ago, and she must find a way to survive in this broken world and stop the ruthless king from destroying her home. She is willing to trade her heart and soul for a chance to save her loved ones and put an end to this reign of terror. cover by @-lucifael- Round One and Two Qualifier for ONC2021

ONC Prompt #71 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the world begins to end on July 31st, best friends August and Juliet drop everything to try to stop it. They fail. The world ends. They wake up on July 31st as if nothing ever happened. Stuck in a time loop with no clear way out, August and Juliet must save the world and ask themselves if they really want to save the world, or if they just want to save each other. [ Featured in the Open Novella Contest Shortlist ]

Regulus Arcturus Black never expected to make it out of the cave alive. After all, Regulus expected he would die young the first time he'd ever seen a Grim. Much to his surprise, he made it out alive and now must pay the price, or so he believes. Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. This story is written for Open Novella 2021. The prompt I chose is the first prompt, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - from The Dark Knight

Where I brainstorm off old and new ONC prompts utilizing various fandom, I'm familiar with to give an idea of how to use prompts during ONC, and figure out the ins and outs of brainstorming for ONC.

Terribly illegal and highly dangerous, magic can cause the best of people to go insane. If the witch or warlock in question is caught in the act well... they should begin to say their final goodbyes. Sixteen year old Aria Everheart knows these rules. She knows that in order to live a full, even possibly happy life, she has to learn to stop thinking outside the box and start thinking about finding a husband. But things change for Aria when she discovers a terrible secret. Suddenly, magic is all she ever wanted or needed. Fear slowly seeped away as Aria's power grew until... She was caught. Aria Everheart, a justice's clerk's daughter, was sent to a magical purging boot camp out of mercy. But the long and winding road of witchcraft doesn't end here as Aria is rescued by a peculiar woman named Flora and brought to a treehouse at the edge of the kingdom. From there, Aria must figure out why there's a fairy missing and what's actually happening around the kingdom... Welcome to the outskirts of society, where magic thrives and witches are quite alive. Open Novella Contest entry 2021. Longlister Prompt #22 Cover Credits to newsies and themythicalcommunity

Known as the best huntress in Farnloss, 20-year-old Raya does her best to provide for the people within her village. However, this becomes a near-impossible task with the terrible drought that has consistently plagued them for the last few seasons. No water means no food, no medicine, and no livelihood. So when cunning and crafty Raya sees a golden object glinting in the sunlight on the bank of the reservoir, she decides to investigate, hoping its something of worth that merchants would be interested in. But what she discovers is so much more. Along with her best friend, Awen, Raya is thrust into a quest to save her village. Armed with Tarius, her divine bow, she must venture forth to form an alliance with the New Gods to defeat those who would see her villagers perish. 2021 English Open Novella Contest #ONC2021 Genre: YA Fantasy [UNEDITED: Will be completed by November!] Round 1: 2,000 Word Milestone (Ends Feb 28th)✅ [I MADE IT!!] 🤗 Round 2: 8,000 Word Milestone (Ends April 4th)✅ [I MADE IT AGAIN!!] 😭 Round 3: 20,000 Word Milestone (Ends May 2nd)❌ [I did not make the deadline! What a time to go on hiatus, eh? Better luck next year!] *** AWARDS / RANKINGS / REVIEWS: "Incredible and amazing." -Nebula Reviews ✨#1 in #ONC2021 - 02.24.2021✨ ✨Passed Round One of the ONC 2021 Judging✨ ✨Passed Round Two of the ONC 2021 Judging✨ 🥈Won second place in the action/adventure category in The Big Dipper Awards ✨ *** Thank you for reading!

How many times must you die before you realize what you are living for? ********************************************************* Ezlyn Graves has lost her mind. Literally! The inability to remember a single event after a drunken night leaves her mystified. To make matters worse, a cryptic text message revealing that she is an agent, presents a life she never knew existed. Apparently, Ezlyn is a Guardian of the Death Guard, summoned by Death to locate the stolen scythe before the necrological order of demise is disrupted. But Ezzie didn't expect to be teamed up with devious miscreants thirsty for blood and seeking vengeance. In fact, she isn't at all prepared to learn that some of Death's own personal guards have gone missing, especially at a time when she has no recollection of the life she is living or what she is capable of. Mystery/Thriller Prompt 54: You get a mysterious message on your phone stating, Agent 23, you have been activated. You guess it's a bad time to have amnesia.

Who will she choose? Upon her parent's last wishes, Adelina Clarke is forced to retire to the English countryside with a grandmother and uncle she's never met. Elevated from Baroness to Marchioness she must navigate the whirlwind of her first debutante season and the sprouts of new love. Adelina may be promised to a nobleman but will title and money be enough to keep her from someone else? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Navigate Regency Era England in this edge-of-your-seat romance. Bridgerton meets Scandal in a collision of steamy, swoon-worthy literature. Title creds go to Izzy Prompt #79: "Thanks to your parent's last will and testament, you find yourself living out in the English countryside with the grandmother you'd never met before and an apparent servant whose only goal is to make you fall in love with them. The problem here is that this grandmother has already promised your hand in marriage to a noble in line for the throne."

1969. It was the year of Manson's helter-skelter, the year we put a man on the moon, and the year two strangers watched the world end in a mushroom cloud of nuclear war. 1966. This was a much better year. Well, for everyone except twenty-two-year-old Annie Edwards. Because it was the year she first saw the blonde-haired boy in her dreams. And although she believed in science, her gut told her these visions might somehow be connected to bizarre experiments happening on campus. As Annie and the mystery man known as Dimitri watch the world erupt in their dreams, they realize that the only way to save their countries, and the world, from nuclear destruction is to work together. They'll uncover the powers of dreams and nightmares, delve into hallucinogenics and insanity, and blur the line between the waking world and their subconscious. A race to space, a delusion of mind control, and the end of the world. Welcome to an experiment in dreams, drugs and war. -.. .-. . .- -- ... / -.. .-. ..- --. ... / .-- .- .-. inspired by prompts: "𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚗𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎." - #𝟼𝟿 "𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖." - 𝙴𝚍𝚐𝚊𝚛 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚗 𝙿𝚘𝚎 - #𝟹𝟸 -.. .-. . .- -- ... / -.. .-. ..- --. ... / .-- .- .-. published: 24/02/2021 highest ranking: ---

Vita hates being a demigoddess. Especially now that Barnabas, the love of her life, is locked up in the Underworld, while she is stuck in an endless cycle of resurrections and new lives. Worst of all, with every resurrection Vita loses a piece of her past, as her memories slowly fade. To break this never-ending cycle, she decides to steal her own records from the Underworld. After all, without records they won't know to send her back to Earth, so she can stay and search for Barnabas. But to get those records, Vita will have to get past Hades, his three-headed watchdog Cerberus and all the guards of Tartarus. Credits to @roguehopes for the amazing cover!!

Cloud Elfari is a sylph with the power over Folka: magic that is created through music. There's only one problem. She can't sing. With the title of Elfidari she is expected to rule as her mother did but without her Folka she is seen as unfit. With no other option, she participates in a race against the other four tribes. Cloud has no doubt she can fly faster than anyone in the Four Sectors but when she is lured by magic she's never seen before, things go off course pretty quickly. She gets forced into a contract by a Traited with a family who does more harm than good. Every sylph had heard the stories of the Traited: the race who were cursed to seek out power but forced to join with another to do so. But when her tribe is at risk and she has no choice but to rely on Swift's power can the two work together to overcome what's ahead? Or will they lose their souls forever?

///On Hold/// Mary Beth has lived in a small town her entire life. Her home life is chaotic, and she's bullied at school. She has a strong inner sense that there is more to life than what she has endured thus far, but it will take a leap of faith to discover the wide world with all its beauty and heartache. The summer of 1996 brings hope and promise. As she turns 18 and graduates high school, she's faced with decisions that will alter the course of her life. **Submission for the 2021 ONC Contest **Prompt Used: #29